"6_10_7_4_8.TXT" (14758 bytes) was created on 08-11-89 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.