75 Years of NASA: Past, Present and Future

The chapter was proud to have Dr. Horacio Chavez, a NASA Ames project manager at Moffett Field, as its guest speaker in February. Hosted on Moffett Field in the NASA Ames Visitor Center, Chavez told the audience about his organization's storied history spanning 75 years. This presentation was somewhat bittersweet for Chavez, as it was the last formal presentation in the visitor center before it closes its doors on March 31. NASA Ames is considered the “friendly front door to Silicon Valley” and always seeking/using the innovation spawned in the Bay Area by the tech firms. Chavez mentioned NASA also is strongly aligned with the outstanding universities in the Bay Area. He talked briefly about each of the six corporate aspects of NASA Ames: aeronautics, design and testing; human space exploration; robotics exploration; innovative partnerships; spin-in/tech fusion; and spin-off/tech transfer. While it may appear NASA and space exploration is slowing down recently due to the termination of the Space Shuttle program in 2011, this is not the case, as the American manned space program is just getting started. NASA has seven missions planned this year to study the moon; these are long-term missions that will be “manned” with robots. The mission of the NASA Ames Visitor Center is to relate not only what NASA has done but also, more importantly, to be the interface with the Bay Area youth and visitors, stressing all aspects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and the importance of using our mind and all available resources. Horatio passionately told the chapter about current projects that call NASA Ames home such as the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA); Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity; Kepler – A Search for Potentially Habitable Planets; wind tunnel studies and so many more fascinating projects.

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