As cars file toward Comcast Center down Regents Drive each game day, a quick detour down Technology Drive would present NASA robotics, disease prevention systems and a Hubble Telescope model in a 367,000-gallon tank of crystal blue water.

Many students, however, may not have the chance to visit Technology Drive, an actual street nestled in the northeast sector of the campus. Nonscience majors spend most of their class time near McKeldin Mall, only passing through that corner of the campus in the rush for good seats at the university’s $101 million basketball arena. Millions of dollars have also been spent on groundbreaking research in the few brick buildings on the opposite side of the Comcast parking lot.

The best spot to windowgaze into on the way to some hoop action is the Manufacturing Building facing Regents Drive. The large, arched window gives peeping students a look at complex machinery with curved metal piping, tangled wires and gas tanks laid out in a warehouse. In the back, a large machine with a gray fa?ade carries the familiar NASA logo.

It is just a hint, though, of what’s next door at the Neutral Buoyancy Research Lab Building. There, the Space Systems Lab blurs the line between Star Trek and reality, conducting rare experiments for outer space missions and deep ocean exploration.

The primary goal of research at the SSL is to make humans more productive in space, said lab specialist Brian Roberts. Inside the lab, the most striking feature is a giant water tank for studying “neutral buoyancy.” At 50 feet across, 25 feet deep and a volume of 367,000 gallons, it is essentially a gargantuan swimming pool. The clear blue water is manipulated with foam to simulate conditions in space. There are no buoyancy tanks comparable to it at any university in the world, Roberts said.

“There are only two in the country, and the other one is in Houston, where the astronauts train,” he said.

Top researchers and companies turn to the university because it has the technology and pedigree to succeed. Dave Akin, SSL staff member, negotiated with NASA to obtain the buoyancy tank when he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology more than a decade ago, but the urban MIT campus was not suited for it.

Robot tests at the tank will develop new technology to free up astronauts in outer space. These robots can handle more mundane tasks while astronauts accomplish other goals, Roberts said.

Advanced research is coupled with advanced support. SSL receives about $1 million each year from NASA to spread out among several projects. NASA gave $28 million to the university as a whole in the fiscal year 2004, according to the Office of Research Advancement and Administration’s records.

A research team in the lab is working on robotics that will do space repairs on the Hubble Telescope.

The SSL also dives into the oceanography realm, working on a robotic arm project that will seek life at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Robots will seek creatures such as tubeworms and varieties of shrimp at the ocean’s floor.

Ongoing, high-tech university research is made possible by the record amount of money funneled into the university during the 2004 fiscal year and the proceeding months.

The university received $352 million for research in FY 2004, slightly edging out 2002’s previous record total of $351 million. The state of Maryland provided $46 million.

Akin points to reactions on Maryland Day, when visitors make the buoyancy tank one of the most popular attractions, as an example of advanced research’s shock value.

“Usually it’s kind of like, ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t know this was here,'” he said.