Hampel reports that her department in recent years has been doing much research in the field of photovoltaic technology, and she displays some lightweight portable devices, one small enough to fit atop a small tent, another small enough to carry on a backpack. "There is lots of interest in the military in renewable energy," she says. With solar power, the military doesn't have to cart heavy generators to war zones and depend on fuel trucks that can be easily targeted.

Military tents need electrical power; they also need insulation. Among the materials under review, Hampel says, is aerogel, a gelled-silica material that has been used as an insulator for years but that is now being reprocessed and reshaped to form lightweight insulation for tents. For now, aerogel is being tested for larger tents, not the kind your average hiker would take to the mountains, she adds. "For backpackers, probably the best application would be (someday) for an insulative sleeping pad."

Aerogel also has other applications. (For information about aerogel in winter footwear, see Gear Watch on page 25.) It shows promise—perhaps too much—as fill for parkas. Hampel notes that Burton Snowboards Co., a leading manufacturer in snowboarding equipment, has tried it in a parka, "but it actually turned out to be too warm…so they are using less of it, trying it in patches, in specific locations of the jacket."

Vigorous Volunteers
With Whitaker leading the way, we soon head to appointments at other sites on the base. Along the route, he mentions that roughly 2,000 people work at Natick, about 1,700 of them civilians. On any given day several dozen soldiers might be serving as volunteers for testing.

“We generally recruit them out of basic training on an as-needed basis,” Whitaker says. “There is no pressure to participate, no recriminations if they decide to drop out. We have very strict protocols.”

Volunteers might enter experiments involving weather conditions; they might be put on special diets; they might be tested for endurance and agility after measured physical activity or hardship. The Army, for example, needs to know just how something like marksmanship might be affected after hours of, say, sleep deprivation.

We cross a street, a lawn, enter a three-story building. Our pace is quick; a day visitor can only scratch the surface of the Natick facilities.

Braving the Elements
At the Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, I meet one of Natick’s thermal mannequins, a copper creature electronically controlled to test the effectiveness of various fabrics in cold and heat. I visit the Doriot Climatic Chambers, where temperatures can be adjusted to minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit or 165 above. The chambers–there are two–have 15-foot fans in wind tunnels that can create 40 mph winds, and ceiling sprinklers that can drop four inches of rain an hour. After a brief tour, we head to the Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division, where I check out the “nitrogen room,” where the impact of various elevations on human performance is studied.

There, team leader Dr. Stephen Muza explains that climbers’ performance levels start dropping after they reach about 5,000 feet–to the tune of roughly 10 percent for every additional 3,500 feet. Elevation sickness can kick in around 8,000 feet, he says.

Hence mountain hikers at elevations of 5,000 feet or higher should consider budgeting more time, perhaps 10 percent, to reach their destination. They also will need more water at that height.

“At higher altitudes, you breathe more, so you lose water vapor,” says Muza, who has hiked peaks in Nepal and many other places to collect data. “You need to keep your hydration levels up.”

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