New Role for NASA’s Ames Center: SITE KEEPS 2 BIG PROJECTS, LOSES ROBOTIC MISSIONS

By S.L. Wykes, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

Jun. 6–The news was mixed for NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View on Monday as the space agency announced the roles its 10 centers will play in missions designed to send humans to space more often and keep them there longer.

Ames will keep its lead role in developing heat shields that keep spacecraft from burning up as they re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. And it will remain in charge of a mission designed to crash a probe into the moon’s south pole, creating a plume that should be visible from Earth.

But seven months after being put in charge of a series of robotic missions to the moon, Ames lost that role to Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Meanwhile, the fate of two major projects at the center — a $600 million flying observatory and the astrobiology program, which looks at life in the universe — are still up in the air, so to speak.

Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Simon Worden, who took over as director of Ames in April, said Monday that he thinks the center’s new assignments are “pretty good news. We’ll play a major role that plays to our strengths.” He added that the shift of work to Marshall is a reorientation that “made a lot of sense.”

The focus of Monday’s announcement was NASA’s Constellation Program, an effort to develop spacecraft, launchers and other technology needed to put astronauts on the moon by 2020 in accordance with the vision for space exploration set forth by President Bush.

No one knows exactly what this will mean for the research center. Since 2004, Ames’ budget has been cut from $800 million to $603 million, and its workforce has dropped by nearly a third, to 2,100 people.

Ames, which has the largest supercomputer in the space agency, will head an information systems development program to monitor the safety, reliability and quality of that technology.

In particular, it will work on systems for the Crew Exploration Vehicle, a new type of spaceship that is designed to carry astronauts to the moon. The ships include protective thermal tiles and software, guidance, navigation and control systems.

Ames will continue to play a part developing small spacecraft for a program that sends robotic craft to the moon, which has been renamed the Lunar Precursor and Robotic program.

And it will still be in charge of development of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite or LCROSS, scheduled to fly in 2008. Once in orbit, the satellite is designed to release a probe that will crash into the moon near its southern pole; the mother ship will then fly through the resulting plume to look for water and other compounds.

The object is to learn more about the moon so research stations — and pit stops to Mars — can be safely built and supported.

The new work program represents a different balance for NASA, said Eugene Tu, Ames’ director for space exploration technology. There will be “a de-emphasis on some of the longer-term technologies, things that can’t be used in an operational system for 10 years,” he said. “The focus is now on near-term needs.”

That will be a challenge for Ames, he said, because it has traditionally been a research center looking at the long-range needs of the agency.

Within weeks, the fate of the SOFIA flying observatory, a $600 million jumbo jet equipped with a 50,000-pound telescope, will be announced. Scheduled to fly out of Moffett Field, it was finished five years behind schedule and $200 million over budget and is being considered for elimination.

A decision is also expected soon on the Astrobiology Institute, a virtual center based at Ames with input from 16 academic institutions across the country. Deep cuts may take a large portion of its budget.

Worden said he is optimistic that SOFIA will continue.

The Astrobiology Institute provides some “huge science opportunities,” Worden said, adding, “I’m convinced that NASA leadership intends to help Ames become one of the strongest centers in NASA, giving us some cool missions and doing what we do best. Money-wise, I think we’re ahead of the game.”

Contact S.L. Wykes at swykes@mercurynews.com or (650) 688-7599.

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Copyright (c) 2006, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

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