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JOSH: Right now, there are more
than a thousand

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thunderstorms happening on
Earth. Some 6,000 flashes of

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lightning will occur in the
next minute.

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That lightening can be
devastating, especially to tall
structures...

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That’s why NASA is taking steps
to protect its most valuable
assets...

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And it’s doing so with an
innovative new strategy...

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Learn the secret to NASA’s
launch pad lightning

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protection system... next on
Real World.

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? [music] ?

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[Thunder bolt cracks]
JOSH: Whoa!!! Thunderstorms

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and lightning can be some
pretty scary stuff...

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And I’m just standing in front
a green screen video effect
wall...

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Imagine if I was actually
outside in the middle of a
thunderstorm...

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Well NASA’s next generation
space exploration vehicles

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aren’t going to be able to
avoid being in the middle of

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some potentially dangerous
storms...

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Launch Complex 39 at the
Kennedy Space Center in

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Florida is the site where the
Ares I and Ares V rockets

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will launch from, taking crew
and cargo to the moon and
beyond.

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And lightning is a well-known
danger in that part of Florida.

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So scientists and engineers
have been hard at work

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designing a new lightning
protection system that's

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above and beyond any the space
center has ever seen.

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JON COWART: There is a better
method called Rolling Spheres.

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JOSH: Jon Cowart is the Ares
I-X deputy mission manager.

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JON: For the past 50 years the
way people have done

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lightning protection was using
this thing called the "Cone of
Protection."

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JOSH: The cone of protection
was used by NASA on the

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Apollo program and is pretty
common beyond NASA.

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It’s the basis behind the
lightning rod.

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A fixed rod or mast is built
high into the air, creating a

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"cone of safety." In theory,
the height of the tower

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equals the radius of the base
of the cone, inside of which,

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is relatively safe from the
lightning.

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You can find examples of this
type of shielding on top of

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roofs, water towers, barns,
silos... just about everywhere.

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It is pretty efficient for
buildings, but with so much

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at stake, NASA needs something
better.

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They upgraded for the shuttle’s
system, with a

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single lightning mast on top of
the structure, with two

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curved wires, called catenary
wires, going to the ground.

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Catenary wires can help divert
lightning strikes.

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But that upgraded system still
has its problems.

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JON: You don’t want what we
call a "direct attachment."

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If the lightning bolt hits the
wire like it is supposed

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to and travels down in to the
ground, you still get a huge
electromagnetic pulse.

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But that pulse is much less
than the one you would get if

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it actually got a lot closer to
the vehicle and hit a big

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service structure or even
attached itself to a vehicle.

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JOSH: The energy from a
lightning bolt can be hotter

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that the sun and can fry
valuable electronics.

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To explain it better, we check
in with Richard Byles,

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from the Virginia Air and Space
center...

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RICHARD BYLES: Lightning is a
discharge from cumulonimbus
clouds.

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The Clouds develop a charge
when the particles of water

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and ice in the cloud roll
through.

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When the bottoms become
generally positive and the

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tops become generally negative.

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And of course if you got
negative charges at the top

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and positive charges at the
bottom, they try to get to each
other.

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And as the cloud moves across
the landscape it also imparts

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that positive charge to the
ground underneath it.

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And so what happens with
lightning is it comes down

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through the cloud and then
right to the ground and of

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course it always tries to find
the tallest thing.

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JOSH: But the rolling spheres
system will significantly

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increase the shielding level
and further separate the

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electrical current from
important hardware.

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JON COWART: Rolling spheres,
which gives you much better
protection.

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Those three towers will
actually have wires coming

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towards the middle, right above
the pad. They will form into a
nice little

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opening that the vehicle can
fly through.

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It gives you much better
lightning protection than

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what shuttle has had all these
years.

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As the positive and negative
electrons begin to build up,

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this, the wires and the masts
itself will actually create

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and easier path for the
lightening to get to ground.

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The wire actually acts as a
conductor, the lightning will

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pass into it, go out to the
wires and then it travels

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back down to the ground in
order to

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dissipate that huge
electromagnetic energy.

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JOSH: The system features
towers more than 150 meters

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tall with an additional 30
meter fiberglass mast atop each
one,

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supporting the wire catenary
system.

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It also has 216 pilings
extending down 15 meters below
ground.

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The massive steel towers were
partially assembled

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horizontally on the ground, and
then lifted into the

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vertical position by a
60-story-tall crane.

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The first Constellation
vehicle, the Ares I-X test

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rocket will take off from
Launch pad 39B in 2009.

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? [music] ?