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AMES  RESEARCH  CENTER

Traditional Center Roles and Responsibilities

Ames was founded in 1939 as an aircraft research laboratory
by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)
and named for Dr. Joseph S. Ames, Chairman of NACA from 1927
to 1939 and former President of Johns Hopkins University.
In 1958 Ames became part of NASA, along with other NACA
installations and certain Department of Defense facilities.
In 1981, NASA merged the Dryden Flight Research Center with
Ames.  The two installations are now referred to as
Ames-Moffett and Ames-Dryden.

Ames-Moffett is located in the heart of "Silicon Valley" at
the southern end of San Francisco Bay on about 422 acres of
land adjacent to the U. S. Naval Air Station, Moffett Field,
California.

Ames-Dryden, which is located in the high desert about 70
miles northeast of Los Angeles, occupies about 520 acres
adjacent to Edwards Air Force Base.  This facility was
established in 1947 as a NACA flight research station at the
U. S. Army Air Corps Test Facility, Muroc, California (now
Edwards AFB).  In 1959, the station became the NASA Flight
Research Center, and in 1976 it was renamed the Dryden
Flight Research Center in honor of D. Hugh Dryden, Chairman
of the NACA from 1947 to 1958 and Deputy Administrator of
NASA from 1958 to 1965.

Ames specializes in scientific research, exploration, and
applications aimed toward creating new technology for the
nation.

The Center's major program responsibilities are concentrated
in:
--Computer Science and Applications
--Computational and Experimental Aerodynamics
--Flight Simulation
--Flight Research
--Rotorcraft and Powered Lift Technology
--Aeronautical and Space Human Factors
--Life Sciences
--Space Sciences
--Interplanetary Missions
--Airborne Science and Applications
--Infrared Astronomy

About 2,000 civil service employees and almost 2,000
contractor employees are employed at Ames.

Along with other NASA Centers, Ames significantly
contributed to the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
The Center's achievements in atmospheric entry systems and
heating, aerothermodynamics, and derivation of flight
profiles contributed to the design of the Shuttle Orbiter
and the materials of its thermal protection system.
Ames-Dryden continues to handle the Shuttle landing
operations as well as to manage flight research on virtually
every new military fighter and experimental aircraft built
in the United States.

The Pioneer series of spacecraft, an Ames triumph, made the
first trips through the Asteroid Belt and on to Jupiter and
Saturn.  The array of scientific experimental equipment
carried in  these spacecraft resulted in significant
discoveries, culminating in June 1983 when Pioneer 10
completed history's first flight beyond the known solar
system, still transmitting data, as it does today.

Ames has some of the most unique facilities including:
---Full scale wind tunnels, one of which is the largest in
the world

---National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex  (NAS
supercomputer system)

---Ames' fleet of airborne laboratories that support  the
Airborne Sciences and Applications Program

---Vestibular Research Facility

---Piloted Flight Simulator Complex

New programs for the 1990's and beyond include the Space
Infared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), and support of the Space
Station Freedom.

AMES  RESEARCH  CENTER

Space Station Freedom Unique Activities

Life Sciences Centrifuge
Ames will develop a centrifuge, a 1.8 meter circular device
that rotates with approximately 6 specimen habitats around
its circumference.  Test subjects such as biology cells,
tissues, small plants and animals, will be subjected to
variable gravity conditions
in the centrifuge.  Observations of any changes in the test
subjects will be performed by the crew.

Advanced Space Suits
Ames developed the AX-5 Hard Suit, which is a candidate for
use on the space station.  The suit is highly reliable,
requires little maintenance, and is more comfortable than
the current suit.  The suit can be put on or taken off in
just a few seconds compared with several minutes for the
current spacesuit.  The new suit has an internal pressure of
at least 8.3 psi which eliminates the possibility of the
bends.

Astrometric Telescope
Ames will support the Astrometric Telescope Facility as an
attached payload.  It is a telescope which is designed to
search out and detect planetary systems around nearby stars.
The project interprets data by mathematical analysis to
identify perturbations in the proper motions of the stars
which may be caused by the presence of planets orbiting
those stars.


AMES RESEARCH CENTER

Supporting Activities

The Ames Research Center provides a source of research and
technology in support of the space station.  The Center will
also be a user of the space station, particularly in life
sciences.  It will support payload development, and space
station operations.  Ames is involved in several areas,
including:  human factors, autonomous systems, telescience,
materials microgravity research, life sciences, centrifuge,
spacesuit, controlled ecological life support system, polar
orbiting platform, astrometric telescope facility, infrared
astronomy, and the gas grain facility.  As with any research
endeavor, some of these projects will result in the
development of hardware and software for use in the space
station program while others will not.

Studies are being conducted on how the crew can most
effectively interface with control and maneuvering systems.
Autonomous systems being developed at ARC are  computer
based "expert" systems which emulate some forms of human
intelligence.  These advanced systems will handle routine
operations on the space station to free the crew to
concentrate on the operations and research that benefit from
human adaptability, intuition, and creativity.  A
demonstration project is underway to show how expert
technology can be applied to operate the space station's
thermal control system.  This is an evolutionary system on
the premise that once expert systems have been used for
thermal control they can be developed further to control the
power system and the life support system.  The goal is for a
single integrated system to control all these systems.  In
addition, ARC is working on automated free-flying space
robots that will have the intelligence to perform routine
extra vehicular activities unattended in space.

How materials behave under conditions of microgravity is an
important area of research essential to the building and
operation of the space station.  Materials processing in
space includes smolder-to-flame research to explore how
fires develop under conditions of microgravity where
convection, which brings oxygen to a fire, is inhibited.
This research is aimed at developing fire safety procedures
and control methods for use in the space station.
The formation of droplets is being researched by another
project which examines interactions between gas and fluids
under conditions of microgravity.  This is important to the
space station in developing methods to handle and pump
fluids in space.

How human beings might adapt to long terms of duty in space
and subsequent return to Earth has been studied extensively
at Ames for many years.  These studies are continuing and
are vitally important to the space station.

Ames has a number of unique Life Sciences research
facilities which directly support the space station program.
A Vestibular Research Facility allows scientists and medical
researchers to investigate the important role of the
vestibular organs in governing the effectiveness of humans
in a microgravity environment.  A Human Research Facility
has been operating for a number of years.  It was designed
specifically for studies of physiological and psychological
responses of humans under simulated conditions of
weightlessness and confinement.  The biological responses of
animals and plants to microgravity conditions for extended
periods in the space station will be investigated. A 1.8
meter centrifuge provides the variable gravitational
conditions for the experiments to isolate the effects of
spaceflight on test subjects such as biological cells,
tissues, small plants and animals.


An advanced spacesuit, the AX-5 Hard Suit, which is a
candidate for use on the space station, has been developed
at Ames.  The suit is made of aluminum and contains no
fabric or soft parts that would be subjected to damage by
atomic oxygen in the wake of spacecraft or by rocket
propellants spilled into space.  The suit has high
reliability, has low maintenance needs, and enhances
mobility and comfort for its wearer.  It shields the wearer
against radiation and impact from small meteorites and space
debris.  The suit maintains a constant internal pressure and
volume, no matter how it is flexed.  Its modular design
allows easy replacement of parts and extension to fit
astronauts of various sizes.

AMES RESEARCH CENTER

Supporting Activities

Ames AX-5 Hard Suit

AMES RESEARCH CENTER

Supporting Activities

Ames Life Science Research Activities

AMES RESEARCH CENTER

Supporting Activities

The suit is being evaluated by immersion in water to
simulate weightlessness, and NASA astronauts are continuing
these studies so that a suit can be decided upon before the
space station is in orbit.  The suit can be put on or taken
off in just a few seconds compared with several minutes for
the current spacesuit.  The suit is entered through a hatch
in the rear.  The legs are put in first, followed by the
upper part of the body.  The new suit no longer requires an
astronaut to spend several hours prebreathing pure oxygen to
prevent the "bends" because its internal pressure is at
least 8.3 psi and can be raised to normal atmospheric
pressure of 14.7 psi if less mobility of the hands can be
tolerated.

Food, water, and a breathable atmosphere are three elements
essential for human survival.  NASA's project for a
Controlled Ecological Life Support System (CELSS) is aimed
at developing a bioregenerative support system to generate
oxygen, supply fresh food, and remove excessive carbon
dioxide from the space station.  Essentially, this is a
recycling of air, water, and waste products using biological
systems to do so.  This system may be used as the growth of
the station evolves.  Ames  is supporting CELSS with basic
research.  Environmental parameters such as temperature,
light intensity, photoperiodicity, radiation, carbon dioxide
levels, and oxygen production are being examined in detail,
while comparing plant biomass yield, time to harvest, and
percentage of edible plant biomass under varying
environmental conditions.  Plants being studied include
wheat, soybeans  lettuce, and potatoes.  An Earth Observing
System is being set up as part of the space station program.
There will be almost complete interchangeability among
sensors carried by high-flying aircraft today and the space
station and its platforms in the future.  ARC's experience
over many years in managing and supporting high flying
aircraft equipped with remote sensors of various kinds is of
great advantage to the planning of remote sensing
instrumentation for the space station and its orbiting
platforms, their management, and their operations on behalf
of scientists of different disciplines.

The Astrometric Telescope Facility is an attached payload
project which is a telescope designed to search out and
detect planetary systems around nearby stars.  The project
interprets data by mathematical analysis to identify
perturbations in the proper motions of the stars which may
be caused by the presence of planets orbiting those stars.

A Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) is planned as a
future NASA project for exploring deep space at infrared
wavelengths.  It requires a cryogenic fluid (liquid helium)
to keep the detecting elements at a very low temperature for
increased sensitivity.  The  supply of helium carried by
SIRTF is used up during operation and will need to be
replenished every
11/2 to 2 years when SIRTF is in orbit early in the next
century.  The space station can act as supply base and also
as a maintenance base for SIRTF when the project is funded.
Ames is studying ways in which the space station can support
this advanced future project.  ARC's Infrared Astronomy
Project Office has initiated a flight demonstration program
to develop and prove the technology required for efficient
transfer of liquid helium in orbit.  A technology
demonstration project to be tried on a Shuttle flight will
transfer liquid helium between two Dewer flasks in the STS
bay while  in space.  This is aimed toward the design of an
automated space supply vehicle which could operate from the
space station to replenish the tanks of the SIRTF, as as
alternative to using an orbital maneuvering vehicle (a space
tug) to move SIRTF to the station for servicing.

A wide  range of fundamental scientific pro-blems involving
interactions of small particles and clouds can be addressed
by conducting mi-crogravity experiments on the space
station.  NASA-ARC is developing an interdisciplinary
fundamental research facility, the Gas Grain Simulation
Facility (GGSF) to simulate and study fundamental chemical
and physical pro-cesses such as formation, growth,
nucleation, condensation, evaporation, and like processes,
and mutual interactions among cloud crystals, dust grains
and other particles in the absence or near absence of
gravity.  The facility will in-vestigate how particles are
affected by mag-netic, electric, and acoustical fields.


Such research is expected to provide better understanding of
phenomena such as nuclear winter, species extinction
following asteroid impact, the mechanics of Martian dust
storms, the aerobiology of interstellar dust clouds, the
formation of comets and planets from grains of a solar
nebula, and the formation of stars from interstellar clouds.




AMES  RESEARCH CENTER

Advanced Space Technology Office

The Advanced Space Technology Office has two major
responsibilities.  First it is responsible for coordinating
the Center's overall activities with respect to the NASA
Space Station Freedom program.  This office is the focal
point for the Center's participation in all aspects of the
program.  The office serves as the focus to space station
for Ames Research Center's interests, and to provide to ARC
directorates information regarding the opportunities in
research technology development and utilization in the space
station era.  The office is also responsible for
coordinating and directing new interdisciplinary
multiorganization space re-search and technology programs
and projects.  These currently include programs in
explora-tion, telescience, and Project Pathfinder.