Until recently, the only way to find out what happened to anything in extreme cold, or heat, or at low atmospheric pressures, was to take it somewhere suitably extreme and run tests on site – and this was for large-scale testing. This, however, is expensive, often perilous, and hit-and-miss when it comes to the replication or control of variables.
Although small-scale environmental testing within specially designed chambers has been around for decades, solar panels, technical clothing, drones, bulldozers and even humans, plants and other living things can now all be tested to their limits at a facility in Bolzano in the Italian Tyrol – the terraXcube.
The team at terraXcube can match atmospheric pressures from sea level to the top of Everest, simulate blizzards and torrential rain, high winds, extreme humidity or parched desert dryness, and temperatures from -40°C to +60°C, and combinations of all the above.
Christian Steurer is the director of the centre...