Highlights from Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

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By Jon RaskToday was the first day of official activities with my fellow glaciology students and instructors. The class of about 25 gathered at 8:30 a.m. in the reception area at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) to begin a 2-day safety course led by the UNIS chief of logistics, Fred Hanson. Fred is an [...]

Have you ever wondered what a city of the future would look like? Well, 31 teams of middle school students did. They used their imagination and creativity to build small scale cities to compete in the Future City Competition on Jan. 26, 2008 at Ames. These students had been meeting after school [...]

Jack Lissauer, an astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center, and Imke de Pater, a professor from U.C. Berkeley, collaborated to write an advanced astronomy textbook, “Planetary Sciences.” Because this is such an excellent textbook, they won the 2007 Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award from the American Astronomical Society. The award, which was given for [...]

The Ames scientists who wrote the paper who won this years H. Julian Allen award had doubts about the broad appeal of the paper. “At the time, we really didn’t think that Science would even publish the paper. We thought that it was too narrowly focused for them,” said Max Bernstein, one of [...]

Ames employees and their families turned up by the thousands to see NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) on Jan. 14, 2008 before it begins its 20-year-long astronomical science mission. The predecessor to SOFIA, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory was also at Ames for employees and their families to see. SOFIA is a [...]

When Francis Enomoto designed the Collaborative Decision Environment (CDE) software, he designed it with his two customers in mind: firefighters and the managers who plan flight paths for Ikhana, an unmanned aerial vehicle. Collaborative refers to sharing decision support information and communication among a geographically distributed set of users. The CDE is an [...]

On Wednesday Jan. 9 at noon, come to the SETI Institute to learn about quantum physics. Topics such as the possibility of changing history through quantum physics will be discussed. Needless to say, this should be a very interesting seminar. See you there!

During the dawn in space history, Dee O’Hara was the nurse to the first seven Mercury astronauts and continued on with the astronauts in the Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs. “I’m more aware of the historical significance now then I was at the time. At the time, I was just doing my job,” said [...]

When the Ames wildfire team received an emergency request for their assistance during the Southern California wildfires every member of the team jumped into motion. Some members worked from their living rooms at 3 a.m. to ensure that “all systems were go” and ready at Ames. Others were at the various fire Incident [...]

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Can Adam or Jamie of the Mythbusters land a plane safely? The Mythbusters used a flight simulator at NASA Ames to test a myth. Does the myth prove true or does it get busted? There is only one way to find out - watch the episode. ‘Airplane Hour,’ airs on Dec. [...]

The public is invited to NASA Ames to observe the televised broadcast of STS-122 space shuttle Atlantis on Thursday, Dec. 6, in the Exploration Center. For more information, check out the official press release about this event.

In a unique collaboration between NASA and the Navajo Nation, the NASA Astrobiology Institute has received funding to continue its work to bring together astrobiology science and Navajo cultural knowledge into educational materials for Navajo youth for the next three years. The institute will work with leaders and educators from the Navajo Nation to [...]

The “America by Air” exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington features a display that includes technology that was developed at NASA Ames.

When Larry Manning retired from his 36-year career at NASA in 2001, he knew that he would somehow find his way back to Moffett Field. Four years before Manning retired, he started looking around for places to volunteer. He started working at the Peninsula Open Space Trust.

In order to determine areas susceptible to landslides after the Southern California wildfires, the state of California, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Forest Service requested data. The Ames-built MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator, a multi-spectral infrared imager was used by these entities to assess damage left by the wildfires Oct. 24-28, 2007. The [...]

The 2007 High-Lakes Expedition led by Nathalie Cabrol has now arrived in Chile and will be exploring the high altitude lakes of Aguas Calientes and Laguna Leija in the next three weeks. For more information about the team’s activites, check out the High Lakes Web site.

The robotic Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will help lead NASA’s return to the moon in a spectacular way. NASA Ames Research Center is opening its doors to the general public from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Nov. 17, 2007 so families can learn about NASA’s exciting LCROSS mission.

Southern California wildfires blazed on while researchers at NASA Ames worked to provide data to fight them. Within 24 hours of the emergency request by California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services for assistance on 11 wildfires raging in Southern California the week of Oct. 24-28, 2007, the Ames team that works with unmanned aerial [...]

Meyya Meyyappan, Director of the Center for Nanotechnology at NASA Ames Research Center, was recently awarded the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Electron Devices Society education award for his work in educating university and high school students about nanotechnology. This award recognizes an IEEE Electron Devices Society member from an academic, industrial, or [...]

The Ames Exploration Encounter (AEE) is a unique facility at Ames that resides inside a portion of a wind tunnel. The AEE is open from September to June with more than 250 classes of fourth, fifth and sixth graders visiting every year. Previously, we published letters written by students who visited the AEE last school [...]

The Ames Plant Engineering Branch and Environmental Services Division have jointly converted a turf-grass area at the Ames Cafeteria, N235 to a California native plant garden.According to Steve Frankel, Chief of the Plant Engineering Branch, “Our organization has long been working to reduce water usage and its associated high cost, through various means, such as [...]

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to look into a polar bear’s eyes and realize it’s sizing you up for lunch? NASA Ames is hosting Polar-Palooza on Friday, Oct. 26, 2007 at 7 p.m. Six scientists and Arctic residents will discuss personal stories about living on the North and South Pole. [...]

As Shakespeare would say where there is a will there is a way and Mary Beth Wilhelm, a Senior at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, Calif., has the will. At the age of ten, when many girls are still playing with toys, Wilhelm pleaded for her parents to buy her a telescope. [...]

An international team of astronomers recently discovered a planet that is orbiting an old star in the late stage of its evolution; this planetary system offers insight into the fate of the Earth. Jonathan Fortney, an Ames Planetary Scientist, recently published an article commenting on this topic in the September issue of Nature [...]