Electromagnetic Compatibility Chamber

NOORDWIJK, The Netherlands--To most Americans, NASA may be the only space research agency worth talking about. But across the pond, some very serious research is being done by the European Space Agency (ESA), a consortium run by 18 countries. And nowhere at ESA is that more true than at the organization's ESTEC (European Space Research and Technology Center) here.

ESTEC features a number of components, and its major duties include development and oversight of all kinds of ESA missions--telecommunications, science, human spaceflight, Earth observation, exploration, and satellite navigation; overseeing the development of space systems and associated technologies; running a test center for spacecraft, and associated engineering labs; and working for the European space industry, and with other space agencies around the world.

This is the Electromagnetic Compatibility chamber in ESTEC's Test Center. It is a Farraday Cage used to measure all electrical properties of equipment being tested in a clean environment.