page_title: Ames Research Center
section_title: Missions
hierarchical_section_title: Ames Research Center / Missions
caption_attribution_description: Main Hangar at NASA Ames Research Center
context_page_description: 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 has over US$3 billion in capital equipment, 2,300 research personnel and a US$860 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; and airborne astronomy. Ames also develops tools for a safer, more efficient national airspace. The center's current director is Eugene Tu.
context_section_description: 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 (radiation environment, new moons, gravity-assist flybys) 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 (NS) 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 (unsuccessful) attempt to analyze lunar polar water by vaporizing it to allow spectroscopic characterization from Earth telescopes.
  The 11-pound (5 kg) 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 (LCROSS) 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 (LRO), which continues to conduct a different lunar task. It launched in April 2009 on an Atlas V rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
  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 (SOFIA) is a joint venture of the U.S. and German aerospace agencies, NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) 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 is 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 (LADEE) 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 (one half meter) into the layers of water ice and analyzing the soil composition. Ames is also a partner on the Mars Science Laboratory and its Curiosity rove
caption: Hangar One, originally a US Navy airship hangar, in Mountain View, California
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