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HTMLText_33711F51_3D9B_3042_41C8_5BBC76E1A7A1.html = Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA)
Welcome to MESA, home of Sandia’s advanced nuclear weapons research, design and development functions, as well as integrated materials research, and the production facilities for microsystem technologies.
Focused primarily on the nuclear weapons mission, the facilities that make up MESA ultimately connect with all of Sandia's mission areas via microsystems research and applications.
After eight years of construction, MESA was completed in 2007 at a cost of $518 million. It was Sandia's largest construction project since the Labs' first permanent buildings were built in the 1940s.
898 Lobby
Building 898 is a three-story, partially pre-fabricated, facility housing offices and light laboratories. Designed as an integrated facility promoting interaction among groups via workspace blocks, the building sports a postmodern, high-tech industrial design. The soaring lobby and high ceilings create an open and empowering environment for the design work housed here.
Gowning Room
Clean rooms environments are kept clean both by limiting the volume of particles introduced to the space and by constantly moving the air to remove particles. Workers wear protective garments to reduce the number of contaminants they introduce to the room. This changing station allows staff to put on appropriate layers prior to entering a clean room; additional changing rooms allow for full changes of clothing.
858 Lobby
Originally built in the late 1980s to house the Manufacturing Development Laboratory and its offices, Building 858 expanded significantly when 858EF (the MicroFab) and 858EL (MicroLab) were added as part of the MESA construction. The building houses wafer manufacturing, compound semiconductor fabrication, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) production, and electronic circuit manufacturing.
MicroFab
The MESA Microsystems Fabrication facility is one of the most complex buildings at Sandia. It is the first in the world to combine silicon processing with fabrication of compound semiconductors under one roof. This is the heart of microsystem manufacturing, done primarily in cleanrooms.
858 SiliconFab
Building 898 is a three-story, partially pre-fabricated, facility housing offices and light laboratories. Designed as an integrated facility promoting interaction among groups via workspace blocks, the building sports a postmodern, high-tech industrial design. Its polished stone and steel and glass exterior includes curvilinear walled ribbons of windows leading to the northeast entrance, and extended wings with sun-protecting louvered windows. The soaring lobby and high ceilings create an open and empowering environment for the design work housed here.
898 Corridor
State-of-the-art videoconferencing and stunning projection capabilities make the VIEWS Corridor a prime viewing and sharing spot for scientific computing displays. Output from the visualization tools used in Sandia's high performance computing arena can be projected in 3D. The area is a magnet for VIP visits and tours.
858 Photolith Lab
Sandia maintains a clean room outside of the MicroFab area for its photolithography processes. This allows the MESA workers to develop and maintain customized processes without disruption to the manufacturing effort.
This console is being used to monitor lightning and potential gradient (which is the rate of change of electric potential with respect to distance in the direction of the greatest change). For the safety of the personnel and the test itself, it's important to keep a constant eye on any nearby lightning storms in order to be sure there aren't any shocking results.
The winch house has a system with a screen that is used to monitor the tension on the cables, and houses controls for adjusting cable height.
This light is the Potential Gradient warning system. Potential gradient (the rate of change of electric potential with respect to distance in the direction of the greatest change) is monitored when explosives are being used. The static electricity in the area can be dangerous when using electrostatic sensitive explosives. This light warns of dangerous levels; if the potential gradient gets within a certain limit, the warning will turn yellow and then red, providing a visual warning.
One function of this console (the consoles are modular and can be used for whatever function needed), is to track weather. Wind speed, pressure and lightning are all factors that must be considered when testing outside.
The site has four primary cable systems that span two ridges on either side of the canyon area with the test arena. Each cable can be raised and lowered to lift items to varying positions and orientations above the ground. Heavy items can be lifted and dropped from about 100 feet, while lighter items can be raised to almost 630 feet.
This trolley doesn't deliver a San Francisco treat, but it does make for an excellent test target or platform. This cable is equipped with a special trolley retrieval system, which is a custom winching system that moves a fixture along the cable like a tramcar to capture the test trolley where it stops. During aerial trolley testing, the trolleys traverse the aerial cable and simulate the movements of an object in flight. The trolley moves along the cable, positioned by the truck winch and S5 winch.
The Aerial Cable Facility hard target was developed in the 1980s as a non-yielding surface, making it one of the only certified facilities available for container tests. This target is used for rocket-assisted pull-down tests as well as certain types of drop tests. The target has a mass of about 900,000 kg and is designed not to fail after repeated impacts. This is due to the use of materials such as concrete and armor steel plating. A 55,000 lb. TruPac3 is the largest package dropped on it to date.
Cable 2, which originally came from the Sandia tram, is the main cable pull down. It does not move during a test. It intersects with the sled track on the hillside to the east, which is used to accelerate items on the cable. Cable 2 is also used for impact onto the hard target (the flat concrete pad slightly to the west in the test arena).
Cable 1 is a single piece of cable attached to a slider beam that can be raised for impact. It goes west over the top of the hill to a trolley winch that is used to move the cable back and forth.
Nah, it couldn't have been... could it?
To accelerate the impact of a test unit, steel track extends up the hillside to the east of the main arena. The track is 630 feet, which is covered in a few seconds by a rocket-powered sled. The rocket fires from the bottom of the hill and roars upwards, hitting in the catcher box of sand at the top at 1000 feet per second.
The Nuclear Security Enterprise has more work in developing, testing, and producing modifications for the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile than it has had in the past three decades. The B61-12 Life Extension Program - developing a new modification for the venerable B61 weapon design - is one of the efforts underway to renew and extend U.S. nuclear capabilities.
Fiber optic and coaxial cable run from the Control Room to the arena. There are seven patch stations at ground zero in the test arena that can be plugged in to capture data.
This console is monitoring the test activity through a surveillance system. There are cameras located around the facility and various stations in the test arena. Cameras are used to verify nonessential personnel are outside the hazard area during explosive operations as well as keep an eye on the state of the arena post-test.
The fancy little control module with all the cool lights controls the camera server. There are six cameras connected to this central control, allowing an operator to see whatever they need on the video monitors of the control room.
During a test, there may be 10-12 people in the control room, including the customer who is there to watch. Of those dozen or so people, three are actually controlling the test, following a detailed procedure document open on the console. A cable pull-down test requires a lot of firing sets to manually fire, so a programmed sequencer does the firing with a pre-set activation.
Control of a test takes place almost a mile from the test arena, however the arena is kept in clear view thanks to several cameras that show on the screens of the recently updated control room. Because it's so far away, the communication links are repeatedly checked and tested. During test set-up, troubleshooting is supported from the control room as technicians consult and advise workers at the arena. And yes, it does look a little like the Batcave in here.
The early bird gets the worm, or in this case, a successful test. Before the rockets and drops and cables and impacts and all the exciting stuff, a lot of work needs to be done to make sure the test is not only successful, but executed safely. All of the preparation and safety checks begin early in the morning, long before the sun comes up, so when the test goes down, it can do so without a hitch.
This panel is the arming and firing panel, which requires two turn keys to operate. Kind of like firing missiles from a submarine... but, totally different... because this facility is in a desert... and isn't firing missiles... but turning the keys is still kind of cool!
In this dry, rocky terrain, away from the hustle and bustle of city life, wildlife thrives, almost ignoring the fact that there are people trying to get some testing done here. One can find everything from rattlesnakes to foxes to mountain lions to deer in the area, often crossing from one ridge to the other. At times, that means a test may be delayed, allowing a few deer to wander across the testing arena before testing can resume.
Upgrades were recently made to the control room to help make it more comfortable and functional. The new control room was designed around the needs of the various teams who conduct tests here so they might perform their functions more efficiently. New fiber was also run from ground zero to the control, helping to provide greater control and less clutter. Upgrades not only improved equipment, but communication among teams by creating a less crowded room.
Control panels are modular, so teams don't always have to sit in just one area. There's also a space now for classified projects. The console on the left is currently set up to track weather. The console on the right monitors lightning and potential gradient.
The Aerial Cable Facility uses the same kind of 40 mm cable as the Sandia Tram (https://sandiapeak.com). In fact, Cables 1 and 2 are made of two pieces from an old cable used at the tram. Each spool of cable is 45,000 lbs, with just one foot of cable weighing around 6 lbs. The cable used to be Kevlar rope, however that was switched to the 40 mm after the facility was updated in 2003. This bunker looks really impressive, doesn't it? Must have something good in it, right? Not currently it doesn't. Now it's just used for storage. However, there was a time where this bunker housed the original control building. However, when the new main building was built, this bunker was emptied and now is just an imposing looking storage closet.
You may notice something that looks a lot like a bomb here in the garage, but don't worry, it's not a real one. These bomb mock-ups are used for calibration tests where teams practice getting the unit to the right height so the rocket sled can reach the right velocity for the test.
The winch site is just over the mountain and to the west of the test arena. In the control room at the Winch Site, an operator manages the load on the cable. The winch operator also communicates with the lead rigging operator back at the arena and adjusts cable heights and tensions per the rigging operator's instructions.
The tests done at the Aerial Cable Facility involve high-precision work in incredibly difficult environments. A test device suspended from the cable, perhaps pulled down by a rocket on the nearby sled track, must hit the target at a specified velocity, and make contact at a particular point and angle. These are large masses, traveling fast, making contact with reinforced concrete, all making for some pretty spectacular collisions.
Construction on the current Aerial Cable Facility began in 1970 with the goal of providing an upgraded alternative to the old Aerial Cable Facility. By 1971, the site had cables suspended between the mountain ridges to the east and west of the canyon, a poured concrete hard target, and a 630-ft. long sled track. A few years later, an additional cable was added to accommodate aerial flight tests for the military services. In 1984-1985, work was completed on adding a cable over a test arena to the north of the original test arena. This arena and cable supported antitank drop tests.
This is the Aerial Cable's garage. It's a lot like your garage at home. It has tools. It has clutter. It has projects in various stages of completion. Here teams build whatever may be needed for testing, including modifying pulleys to add a cutter which will slice through a plasma rope during a pull-down test. Speaking of which, that plasma rope is actually weaved by hand here in the garage. Who knew basket weaving could be such a vital skill?
One of the more unique features found at the Ariel Cable Facility is a long line of vintage tanks next to the road as one drives out to the testing arena. The tanks were brought in for testing, although not all of them were used for testing. Specifically, tanks were brought in during the 1980s for different programs that were conducting antitank drop tests. Over the years they've been dragged around and re-configured multiple times. They reason they're all line up like this because the Aerial Cable Testing Facility conducts a variety of testing, some of it classified. During one of those tests these tanks were set up as an extra and hopefully intimidating wall to help prevent unauthorized personnel from accessing the site. Around 30 of vintage tanks were used to build the wall.
That's not an entrance to the Batcave, rather, all communications and cables from the control room run into the bunker at the arena. This bunker has housed instrumentation and communications over time, but it has never been used to run an actual test.
A running line tensionometer measures the load on a cable and feeds data back to the control room at the Winch Site. During test preparation, an operator at the winch site control room is verbally providing data to the lead rigging operator at ground zero. The lead rigging operator is communicating with all winch operators before, during and after test activities to make sure everything is in a safe state.
The cable system consists of an assortment of pulleys, tack blocks, and rigging hardware in order to meet test requirements at the test arena.
The cable at the winch house is a smaller gauge than the cable in the arena. The smaller cable extends to the trolley, which is then connected to the larger cable that extends over to the arena.
The cable is load-tested at 630 feet above the test arena. Annual verification checks are done on the system along with various load tests. Overall, the system can't exceed 19,500 lbs, which is monitored at the Winch House when load testing is being conducted.
Once a year, the entire cable is inspected. It is lowered to as low a point as possible in the arena, then inspected by hand. The inspection follows a written procedure, and there are miles of cable to inspect.
North of the main test arena is a smaller test area. There is no concrete target here, just a dirt arena. Smaller cables service this test area and it is used for smaller tests.
The Aerial Cable Facility has undertaken a variety of tests over the years. The site supports aerial trolley testing, artillery and gun firing, air-to-ground testing, air drop testing, gravity-drop/pull-down testing, explosives testing, rocket rail testing, sensor testing, and laser tracking. What that all means is at this facility they can drop it, pull it, fire it in the air with artillery or a missile, detect it, and track it, all to provide a huge amount of data to understand the device being tested.
For photometric operations, high-speed cameras are placed around and above the target to capture the entire test. The cameras are calibrated with a spotted board at four locations on the target.