The Interaction Heating Facility arc jet heater core

The Interaction Heating Facility (IHF) arc jet heater core at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., is the largest of its kind in the United States and one of the principal research areas where materials for space exploration are tested. The arc jets are basically room-size blowtorches used to blast materials for re-entry shields with intense heat, and as such, they get so hot they have to be cooled with thousands of water lines.