These yellow ballons make pieces neutrally buoyant. They use it to help astronauts train with certain tools and things. There was an astronaut in the tank when we were there, although i never could see him
Looking down into the water. The thing on the right is a mockup of the Shuttle's payload bay, and the stuff on the left is some ISS mochups. You can see the top right corner of the pool. Keep in mind everything in there is full scale
The first step in space testing of the VASIMR rocket is testing it on the ISS and eventually using it for reboost (the ISS slows due to some drag from being so close to the earth and needs progress modules to reboost it every so often. VASIMR will be able to run constantly, eliminating the need for a reboost.) This is what the VASIMR will look like when it is on the ISS
IF you saw the previous VASIMR picture that showed the whole engine and compared it to the mockup of what it will be on the ISS, you can tell it is gonna need some serious downsizing. So, this is a prototype of a smaller superconducting magnet
Next...EMF and Anechoeic chambers!
