Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center, also known as NASA Ames, is a major NASA research center at Moffett Federal Airfield in California's Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1939 as the second National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics laboratory. That agency was dissolved and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration on October 1, 1958. NASA Ames is named in honor of Joseph Sweetman Ames, a physicist and one of the founding members of NACA. At last estimate NASA Ames had over US$3 billion in capital equipment, 2,300 research personnel and a US$750 million annual budget.
Ames was founded to conduct wind-tunnel research on the aerodynamics of propeller-driven aircraft; however, its role has expanded to encompass spaceflight and information technology. Ames plays a role in many NASA missions. It provides leadership in astrobiology; small satellites; robotic lunar exploration; the search for habitable planets; supercomputing; intelligent/adaptive systems; advanced thermal protection; planetary science; and airborne astronomy. Ames also develops tools for a safer, more efficient national airspace. The center's current director is Eugene Tu.
The site was mission center for several key missions and a major contributor to the "new exploration focus" as a participant in the Orion crew exploration vehicle.
Missions
Although Ames is a NASA Research Center, and not a flight center, it has nevertheless been closely involved in a number of astronomy and space missions.The Pioneer program's eight successful space missions from 1965 to 1978 were managed by Charles Hall at Ames, initially aimed at the inner Solar System. By 1972, it supported the bold flyby missions to Jupiter and Saturn with Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Those two missions were trail blazers for the planners of the more complex Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions, launched five years later. In 1978, the end of the program brought about a return to the inner solar system, with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe, this time using orbital insertion rather than flyby missions.
Lunar Prospector was the third mission selected by NASA for full development and construction as part of the Discovery Program. At a cost of $62.8 million, the 19-month mission was put into a low polar orbit of the Moon, accomplishing mapping of surface composition and possible polar ice deposits, measurements of magnetic and gravity fields, and study of lunar outgassing events. Based on Lunar Prospector Neutron Spectrometer data, mission scientists have determined that there is indeed water ice in the polar craters of the Moon. The mission ended July 31, 1999, when the orbiter was guided to an impact into a crater near the lunar south pole in an attempt to analyze lunar polar water by vaporizing it to allow spectroscopic characterization from Earth telescopes.
The 11-pound GeneSat-1, carrying bacteria inside a miniature laboratory, was launched on December 16, 2006. The very small NASA satellite has proven that scientists can quickly design and launch a new class of inexpensive spacecraft—and conduct significant science.
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission to look for water on the Moon was a 'secondary payload spacecraft.' LCROSS began its trip to the Moon on the same rocket as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which continues to conduct a different lunar task. It launched in April 2009 on an Atlas V rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
Image:Main aircraft hangar at nasa ames.JPG|thumb|right|250px|Hangar One, originally a US Navy airship hangar, in Moffett Field, California
The Kepler mission was NASA's first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets. The Kepler mission monitored the brightness of stars to find planets that pass in front of them during the planets' orbits. During such passes or 'transits,' the planets will slightly decrease the star's brightness.
Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy was a joint venture of the U.S. and German aerospace agencies, NASA and the German Aerospace Center to make an infrared telescope platform that can fly at altitudes high enough to be in the infrared-transparent regime above the water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere. The aircraft was supplied by the U.S., and the infrared telescope by Germany. Modifications of the Boeing 747SP airframe to accommodate the telescope, mission-unique equipment and large external door were made by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems of Waco, Texas.
The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph mission is a partnership with the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory to understand the processes at the boundary between the Sun's chromosphere and corona. This mission is sponsored by the NASA Small Explorer program.
The Lunar Atmosphere Dust Environment Explorer mission has been developed by NASA Ames. This successfully launched to the Moon on September 6, 2013.
In addition, Ames has played a support role in a number of missions, most notably the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover missions, where the Ames Intelligent Robotics Laboratory played a key role. NASA Ames was a partner on the Mars Phoenix, a Mars Scout Program mission to send a high-latitude lander to Mars, deployed a robotic arm to dig trenches up to 1.6 feet into the layers of water ice and analyzing the soil composition. Ames is also a partner on the Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rover, a next generation Mars rover to explore for signs of organics and complex molecules.
Aviation systems
The Aviation Systems Division conducts research and development in two primary areas: air traffic management, and high-fidelity flight simulation. For air traffic management, researchers are creating and testing concepts to allow for up to three times today's level of aircraft in the national airspace. Automation and its attendant safety consequences are key foundations of the concept development. Historically, the division has developed products that have been implemented for the flying public, such as the Traffic Management Adviser, which is being deployed nationwide.For high-fidelity flight simulation, the division operates the world's largest flight simulator, a Level-D 747-400 simulator, and a panoramic air traffic control tower simulator. These simulators have been used for a variety of purposes including continued training for Space Shuttle pilots, development of future spacecraft handling qualities, helicopter control system testing, Joint Strike Fighter evaluations, and accident investigations. Personnel in the division have a variety of technical backgrounds, including guidance and control, flight mechanics, flight simulation, and computer science. Customers outside NASA have included the FAA, DOD, DHS, DOT, NTSB, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing.
The center's flight simulation and guidance laboratory was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
Information technology
Ames is the home of NASA's large research and development divisions in advanced supercomputing, human factors, and artificial intelligence. These Research & Development organizations support NASA's Exploration efforts, as well as the continued operations of the International Space Station, and the space science and Aeronautics work across NASA. The center also runs and maintains the E Root nameserver of the DNS.The Intelligent Systems Division is NASA's leading R&D Division developing advanced intelligent software and systems for all of NASA Mission Directorates. It provides software expertise for earth science applications, aeronautics, space science missions, International Space Station, and the Crewed Exploration Vehicle.
The first AI in space was developed from Code TI, as is the MAPGEN software that daily plans the activities for the Mars Exploration Rovers, the same core reasoner is used for Ensemble to operate Phoenix Lander, and the planning system for the International Space Station's solar arrays. Integrated System Health Management for the International Space Station's control moment gyroscopes, collaborative systems with semantic search tools, and robust software engineering round out the scope of Code TI's work.
The Human Systems Integration Division "advances human-centered design and operations of complex aerospace systems through analysis, experimentation, and modeling of human performance and human-automation interaction to make dramatic improvements in safety, efficiency and mission success". For decades, the Human Systems Integration Division has been on the leading edge of human-centered aerospace research. The Division is home to over 100 researchers, contractors and administrative staff.
The NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division at Ames operates several of the agency's most powerful supercomputers, including the petaflop-scale Pleiades, Aitken, and Electra systems. Originally called the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation Division, the facility has housed more than 40 production and test supercomputers since its construction in 1987, and has served as a leader in high-performance computing, developing technology used across the industry, including the NAS Parallel Benchmarks and the Portable Batch System job scheduling software.
In September 2009, Ames launched NEBULA as a fast and powerful Cloud Computing Platform to handle NASA's massive data sets that complied with security requirements. This innovative pilot uses open-source components, complies with FISMA and can scale to Government-sized demands while being extremely energy efficient. In July 2010, NASA CTO Chris C. Kemp open sourced Nova, the technology behind the NEBULA Project, in collaboration with Rackspace, launching OpenStack. OpenStack has subsequently become one of the largest and fastest growing open source projects in the history of computing, and as of 2014 has been included in most major distributions of Linux including Red Hat, Oracle, HP, SUSE, and Canonical.