Outdoor jackets and satellite solar panels need to be able to withstand the most adverse conditions. They are subjected to an endurance test in climatic chambers. BUSCH vacuum pumps also make it possible to simulate Himalayan air and space vacuum.

Is functional clothing still windproof on an eight-thousander? How does it feel to sit in the driver's cab of a snowcat during a snowstorm? And does the boom that is supposed to deploy the solar sail on the satellite still work in space's cryogenic vacuum? It is possible to test beforehand in a climatic chamber how a material or a product will perform under extreme conditions.

Dense, burning cold, and damp

In climatic chambers, it is possible to set extreme temperatures, regulate humidity and often also to create artificial precipitation. Not all climatic chambers need to be able to replicate the coldness of space and solar exposure of a satellite orbit. Usually a range between a bone-chilling polar night and Death Valley in high summer is enough.

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