English: Testing of the cruise stage for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory in August 2010 included a session in a facility that simulates the environment found in interplanetary space. In this Aug. 24, 2010, photograph, a spacecraft technician at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., prepares for a test in the space simulation chamber. Solar panels are visible on the upper surface of the cruise stage. The testing chamber, 25 feet in diameter and 76 feet high, can simulate the cold, vacuum environment of space. Its 37 xenon lamps, each with about 25,000 watts, mimic the spacecraft's exposure to intense light from the sun.