Tour of Space Facility Inspires Lofty Goals

A group of 40 Santa Ana High School students is lucky their parents’ definition of a clean room is less stringent than NASA’s.

The handpicked math and science students toured a new five-story “clean room” Thursday at the McDonnell Douglas aerospace plant in Huntington Beach. There, workers are building components of an international space station that will be assembled in Earth’s orbit this year.

The droning filtration system inside the cavernous white hangar leaves no more than a pinpoint-sized particle of debris for every 20 cubic feet of air.

No dust here. Only workers in white paper “bunny suits” made to keep dirt from accumulating inside the room that’s off limits to even pen caps and jewelry.

Debris must be kept out so it can’t damage mirror-like metal components and delicate electronics. “If it gets into the hardware or into any critical seam, it could be a disaster,” said Fausto Hinojosa, a program integrator for the company.

Algebra and geometry teacher Pamela O’Neill beamed. “They don’t get a lot of exposure to these types of things,” she said. “They were saying everything we say in the classroom. You get a real-life reinforcement.”