nasa ames visitor center

NASA Ames Visitor Center美国航天中心，在旧金山湾区，占地面积很大，有一部分对游人免费开放，还有一部分是管制区域，不能随便进入。里面有介绍宇宙的免费电影，历代航天飞机模型，宇航服，采集的月球陨石标本，很多当地人带小孩来玩，免费很好，游览完需要30分钟。

a very small setting, more like a intro. it definitely needs upgrade to make it more interactive and fun. It would be good if you could combine with moffet museum near by.

I've visited this small NASA exhibition over a weekend. While the number of items was low, the presence of volunteering NASA ex-employees was the real hit. I've spent more than an hour talking with a lady that worked on the original space shuttle design.

This visitor center is not well known and I always bring visitors to here and although it is small it always provided a great surprise since none of my visitors knew that there is a NASA visitor center in Silicon Valley.

Located at Moffett field, this space shows the impact that the facility has had on space flight, and the development of Silicon Valley. Definitely worth a visit.

Last Saturday 18th Oct, NASA allowed general public to enter the NASA campus and showcase their work - what a disappointment with our hard earned tax dollars. Traffic Jam was all over the place to enter the campus - entry ticket with a time slot was issued to just get a brochure - local law enforcement did not do anything special to make it smooth. Inside the campus, chaos is all over, no one truly know what to expect - bunch of booths with tired employee and overcrowded audience - no entrance to any of their real work - only some old models. The only good thing was a glimpse of the huuuuge hanger that I have been seeing from I-101 for last 25 years. Overall, a very poor arrangement for such a huge number of curious people.

We have attended events at the Nasa Ames Visitor Center, such as special programs on the Mars Lunar Landing. We have enjoyed those. If just stopping by to visit on a non event day, its just average in terms of NASA museums.

As other reviewers have stated, this place is extremely small. The International Space Station exhibit was under renovation so we were not able to walk through it. They have a moon rock, a shuttle cockpit simulator, a theater showing documentaries, a piece of a wind tunnel blade from Ames and mock-up of a space suit (I think it was a proposed design). But the best thing in the whole museum for me was the first sub-orbital Mercury capsule, the one that basically was launched and fell back to earth, no passenger. The next one to be launched would be Ham the chimp and then Alan Sheppard. I literally got chills standing next to this and couldn't believe how tiny it was. I had seen an Apollo capsule many years ago in the Smithsonian but this was before I learned all the history and became a huge fan of the Moon program so it didn't really have the same effect. The capsule was inside a large Plexiglas case that was the shape of it. Apparently there was a bulb inside but it burned out and they haven't replaced it. Pity. I have never been to any other NASA facility so I cannot comment on whether this was better or worse but My wife and I enjoyed it.The thing that hampered my visit was that my camera up and deleted all of my photos from that day so all I have are my memories.

Went to the Ames on way back to SF at end of holiday. Wife and elder son space obsessed so always visit relevant places on trips. First point to make in fairness is that it is free and doesn't claim to rival the visitor centre at Cape Canaveral or Houston. The 'tent' is effectively a permanent structure and houses a slightly disparate collection of things. The film we saw was very much primary/elementary school level and my teens swiftly bailed. Some of the exhibits were diverting but little more. Took about 45 minutes to see it all. In summary worth a visit if you are passing and particularly interested. Don't make a special trip. We think a much better visit if you have an hour or two is the Moffett field air museum next door.

A small but well organized hands-on exploration of the contributions of Ames. The exhibits change, but there's lots of technology and different things to appeal to different ages. Our visit was rushed a bit as a busload of pre-schoolers arrived, and we chose not to share with 30 4-year olds, but we saw what was important to us.Our biggest regret is not realizing there is also a museum inside Moffet Field - be sure you budget time for this. This is also a great stop if you're needing to get out of the ca for a whiler, or if you simply want an easy adventure with the kids.

On December 20, 1939, The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) founded NASA Ames (named after “Joseph Sweetman Ames” on December 20, 1939) Research Center as an aircraft research laboratory and in 1958; it became part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).Ames was “originally” founded to engage in wind-tunnel research on the aerodynamics of propeller-driven aircraft; however its role has developed to encompass spaceflight and information technology. Ames plays a critical role in many of today’s NASA missions in support of America's space and aeronautics programs and Moffett Field is one of 10 NASA field installations.Ames is a leader in information technology research with a focus on super computing, networking, intelligent systems, and conducts the critical research and development that make NASA missions possible.It leads in nanotechnology, fundamental space biology, biotechnology, aerospace and thermal protection systems, and human factors research. Their research in astrobiology focuses on the effects of gravity on living things, and the nature and distribution of stars, planets and life in the universe.In addition, Ames works collaboratively with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), conducting research in air traffic management to make safer, cheaper and more efficient air travel a reality. Ames engages in information and education outreach, forms collaborative partnerships, and fosters commercial application of NASA technologies. Ames is developing the NASA Research Park, an integrated, dynamic research and education community created to cultivate diverse partnerships with academia, industry and non-profit organizations in support of NASA’s mission.Ames operates one of the world′s fastest supercomputers, Pleiades, which will be further enhanced and is scheduled to reach 10 petaflops of processing power by 2012.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.From 1965 to 1978, the “Pioneer space program's” eight successful space missions were managed by Charles Hall at Ames, initially aimed at the inner solar system. In 1972, Ames 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 saw a return to the inner solar system, with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter and Multiprobe, this time using orbital insertion rather than flyby missions.On September 28, 2005, both Google and Ames Research Center went into a long-term research partnership. The Planetary Content Project seeks to integrate and improve the data that Google uses for its Google Moon and Google Mars projects. Our visit:So my son was doing a school project on space and one of the requirements was to visit the “NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field” to obtain further information on space exploration. Moffett Field used to be a thriving military base but “thanks our government’s 1991 reorganization” which included base closures, NAS Moffett Field was closed!”NASA, the space agency is a huge organization which has been responsible for all the space missions in this country so it came as a surprise when we were directed to this “white canopy” type of tent, which was as large as a warehouse out in the middle of this parking lot. I’m thinking, this is it? NASA, the huge conglomerate is settling for this? The outside looked small but once you entered the “building” it’s quite large inside with some impressive exhibits on NASA’s space exploration. The museum only took us about an hour to tour but my son obtained the information he came for. We walked over to their “Gift Shop” which overlooked “Hangar One,” originally a US Navy airship hangar (blimps or air ships as they were called), here at Moffett Field. The gift shop was set up in such a way that it looked like you were walking into another museum, at least, that’s my thought. The gift shop had planes hanging from the ceiling with maps and paintings on the wall and other items that was fun to look and a lot of material relating to the space program. Overall, it was a good place to tour NASA’s space program but there’s not much else to do on this base. Construction of the new Google project which is near Google's Googleplex headquarters began in 2013 and has a target opening date of 2015. It’s called "Bay View" as it overlooks San Francisco Bay (“Review pending!”).

The museum is free and provides a look into the NASA Space Station. Delightful exhibits and the gift shop sells "space food."

We arrived on a Tuesday and there was no one around so we had the whole place to ourselves. Unfortunately the nearby airfield was closed. The Ames centre was interesting especially the simulator, for young audiences. There is a stripped out capsule so visitors can see what space there is to move around in. There is a mini theatrette and helpful staff, but in comparison to other NASA centres, this one is a disappointment.

This could be great... but it looks like it is not maintained: stuff not working, lousy presentation, messy etc. Looks like it is quickly put together because somebody said they needed to do something on PR... Not worth the trip, really!

Fun to learn about our local space exploration history and more about current mission like Keplar and SOFIA.