Ames Research Center

The NASA/Ames Research Center was founded by NASA in 1941 to conduct experiments in advanced avionics, space vehicle design, robotic exploration of the solar system, and space medicine.

From the description of Publications, 1958-2000. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122500063

Administrative History

The Lunar Prospector Discovery Mission to study our moon launched from Kennedy Space Center atop an Athena II rocket on January 7, 1998 UT (January 6 EST). Five days later, it reached the moon and circled it in a polar orbit for the next 19 months. The spacecraft mapped the moon, collecting data about gravity fields, magnetic fields, geochemical composition, and gas-release events. On July 31, 1999 UT the mission team purposely slammed the craft into a permanently shadowed area of a crater near the south pole, in an attempt to find evidence of water ice. Though this dramatic attempt proved unsuccessful, data from the neutron spectrometer experiment showed an abundance of hydrogen. Analysis of these data along with data obtained from the Naval Research Laboratory's Clementine mission strongly suggested that deposits of water ice might be present at both poles of the moon (Feldman, et al. 1998).

Lunar Prospector was a small, spin-stabilized spacecraft, just over four feet in diameter and about four and one half feet tall. It had three booms that extended about eight feet out and carried five instruments and six science experiments: a Gamma Ray Spectrometer, Neutron Spectrometer, Magnetometer, Electron Reflectometer, Alpha Particle Spectrometer, and Doppler Gravity Experiment. Also aboard Lunar Prospector was a small polycarbonate vial containing one ounce of the cremains of the late astronomer Eugene Shoemaker. As an honorary gesture, Shoemaker's ashes were embedded in the lunar surface with the spacecraft, for the first ever space burial of a human being on a celestial body.

In February 1995, Lunar Prospector was selected to be one of NASA's low cost Discovery Program missions designed to help us explore and better understand the solar system. Characterized by its adherence to a "faster, better, cheaper" model envisioned by then NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, the goal of NASA's Discovery Program was "to achieve outstanding results by launching many smaller missions using fewer resources and shorter development times" (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2011). To this aim, the Lunar Prospector team adopted the management approach of Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works," which used streamlined methods and principles to efficiently develop the U-2, SR-71, and F117A. With a rapid completion in 22 months and total cost of $62.8 million, including development, launch vehicle, and operations (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2010), the Lunar Prospector mission successfully fulfilled Discovery Program objectives.

The mission was managed from NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, by the Space Projects Division (Code SF) within the Office of the Director of Space Research (Code S), with G. Scott Hubbard designated as Mission Manager. During the life of the project, from proposal phase onward, Hubbard managed the mission while serving as Acting Chief of Code SF (1995-1996), Associate Director of Code S (1997), Deputy Director of Code S (1998), and finally Associate Director for Astrobiology and Space Programs for the Office of the Director (Code D, 1999). Sylvia A. Cox served as Lunar Prospector's Assistant then Deputy Mission Manager, working in the Advanced Projects Branch (Code SFS, 1995-1997) and Project Operations Branch (Code SFE, 1998-1999) of the Space Projects Division. The prime contractor for the mission (under contract NAS2-14256) was Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space Company (LMMSC) in neighboring Sunnyvale, California, with Alan B. Binder of the Lunar Research Institute in Tucson, Arizona as Principal Investigator (from 1998-1999, Binder was a LMMSC subcontractor working in Code SF) and Thomas A. Dougherty served as LMMSC Project Manager. LMMSC in Littleton, Colorado provided the Athena II launch vehicle.

From the guide to the Lunar Prospector Project Records, 1995-1998, (Ames Research Center, )

Biographical History

Robert "Buzz" E. Slye was born in 1934 in Burlington, Vermont. He received a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University in 1956, where he also served in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. He earned a M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Stanford University in 1957. Slye joined NACA Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in Moffett Field, California, in June 1957 as a summer student, and was subsequently assigned to Air Force duty on the Ames campus in the fall of 1957.

As a summer student, and after conversion to a permanent post as research scientist in 1958, Slye worked with Alfred Eggers and Clarence "Sy" Syverston as a member of the 10 x 14 Inch Wind Tunnel Branch (1957 to 1960) and the 3-1/2 Foot Wind Tunnel Branch (1960 to 1963). Here, he was involved in projects relating to the aerodynamics of lifting bodies, rockets and re-entry capsules. In 1963, Slye became a member of the Mission Analysis Division, Space Applications Branch. The Mission Analysis Division's main function was to conduct studies to determine research areas in which Ames could use its time and funds most effectively. Here, Slye became an expert in trajectory analysis, and was involved in conducting studies on the feasibility of transporting humans to the moon and mars, and in conducting shuttle and launch vehicle studies, including trajectory and payload analysis, costing, planning, design and implementation. Slye was a member of the Mission Analysis Division from 1963 to 1969, the System Studies Division from 1969 to 1971, and the Advanced Concepts and Missions Division from 1971 to 1975.

When the Advanced Concepts and Missions Division dissolved in 1975, Slye moved to the Data Research and Management Branch (1975 to 1976), the Technology Applications Branch under the Airborne Missions and Applications Division (1976 to 1984) and later the Ecosystem Science and Technology (ECOSAT) Branch under the Life Science/Earth System Science/Earth Science Divisions (1984 to present). His research activities under these divisions largely relate to the analysis and display of computer information, including remotely sensed images. As a member of the Ecosystem Science and Technology Branch, Slye worked to develop new understandings of the Earth's ecosystems through remote sensing, airborne imaging and data processing research.

Slye's career at Ames has spanned over a half of a century and is remarkable in that he has made important research contributions in a wide range of disciplines. Slye received the NASA/Ames Special Achievement Award in 1988. At the time of his retirement in December 2007, Slye was the longest continually employed worker at Ames. He became an Ames Associate in 2008, and as of November 2009, Slye is listed as an Ames Associate with the Ecosystem Science and Technology Branch.

From the guide to the Robert E. Slye Papers, 1961-2001, (Ames Research Center, )

Administrative History

(Drawn from "The Pioneer Missions" http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/archive/pioneer.html )

Launched on 2 March 1972, Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to travel through the Asteroid belt, and the first spacecraft to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Famed as the most remote object ever made by man through most of its mission, Pioneer 10 is now over 8 billion miles away.

Pioneer 10 made its closest encounter to Jupiter some thirty years ago on 3 December 1973, passing within 81,000 miles of the cloudtops. This historic event marked humans' first approach to Jupiter and opened the way for exploration of the outer solar system: for Voyager to tour the outer planets, for Ulysses to break out of the ecliptic, for Galileo to investigate Jupiter and its satellites, and for Cassini to go to Saturn and probe Titan. During its Jupiter encounter, Pioneer 10 imaged the planet and its moons, and took measurements of Jupiter's magnetosphere, radiation belts, magnetic field, atmosphere, and interior. These measurements of the intense radiation environment near Jupiter were crucial in designing the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft.

Pioneer 10 made valuable scientific investigations in the outer regions of our solar system until the end of its science mission on 31 March 1997. The Pioneer 10 weak signal continued to be tracked by the DSN as part of an advanced concept study of communication technology in support of NASA's future interstellar probe mission. The power source on Pioneer 10 finally degraded to the point where the signal to Earth dropped below the threshold for detection in its latest contact attempt on 7 February 2003. Pioneer 10 will continue to coast silently as a ghost ship through deep space into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of Taurus (the constellation The Bull). Aldebaran is about 68 light years away and it will take Pioneer over 2 million years to reach it.

Launched on 5 April 1973, Pioneer 11 followed its sister ship to Jupiter (1974), made the first direct observations of Saturn (1979) and studied energetic particles in the outer heliosphere. The Pioneer 11 Mission ended on 30 September 1995, when the last transmission from the spacecraft was received. There have been no communications with Pioneer 11 since. The Earth's motion has carried it out of the view of the spacecraft antenna. The spacecraft cannot be maneuvered to point back at the Earth. It is not known whether the spacecraft is still transmitting a signal. No further tracks of Pioneer 11 are scheduled. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila (The Eagle), Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars in the constellation in about 4 million years.

The Pioneer Venus Orbiter (Pioneer 12) was launched on 20 May 1978 on an Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle. On 4 December 1978, the orbiter was injected into a highly elliptical orbit around Venus. The periapsis, or low orbital point, of the orbit was about 150 km (93 miles) above the surface of the planet. The apoapsis, or highest orbital point, was 66,000 km (41,00 miles) from the planet. The orbital period was 23 hours 11 minutes.

The orbit of Pioneer 12 permitted global mapping of the clouds, atmosphere and ionosphere; measurement of upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and solar wind-ionosphere interaction; and mapping of the planet's surface by radar. For the first 19 months of the mission, the periapsis was maintained at about 150 km by periodic maneuvers. As propellant began to run low, the maneuvers were discontinued, and Solar gravitational effects caused the periapsis to rise to about 2,300 km. By 1986, the solar gravitational effects caused the periapsis to start falling again, and the orbiter instruments could again make direct measurement within the main ionosphere.

During the Orbiter's mission, opportunities arose to make systematic observations of several comets with the Ultraviolet Spectrometer (OUVS). The comets and their date of observation were: Encke April 13 through April 16, 1984; Giacobini-Zinner, September 8 through 15, 1985; Halley, December 27, 1985 to March 9, 1986; Wilson, March 13 to May 2, 1987; NTT, April 8, 1987; and McNaught, November 19 through 24, 1987. For Halley, the results showed that, near perihelion, the water evaporation rate was about 40 tons per second.

Starting in September 1992, controllers used the remaining fuel in a series of maneuvers to keep raising periapsis altitude for as long as possible. The fuel supply was exhausted on 8 October 1992, and the Orbiter ended its mission as a meteor flaming through the dense atmosphere of Venus.

From the guide to the Pioneer Papers, 1952-1996, 1970-1979, (Ames Research Center, )

Administrative History

On June 18, 2009, NASA launched the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS, shepherding spacecraft) as a secondary payload to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas V 401 rocket on a mission to study Earth's moon. LCROSS was designed to confirm the presence and nature of water ice on the moon, and to study the composition of lunar regolith by using the launch vehicle's upper stage as a kinetic impactor and its shepherding spacecraft as a data collector. The impact would dislodge lunar material at the bottom of a permanently shadowed crater near the moon's south pole and elevate it high into the sunlight, thus enabling the instruments aboard the spacecraft to record its characteristics. The main task of the LRO mission, which is still active, was to map the moon and characterize future landing sites. Both missions achieved their primary objectives. LCROSS detected water in the moon's Cabeus crater, and LRO returned nearly 200 terabytes of images and high-resolution maps of the lunar surface, and continues to transmit altimeter measurements back to Earth.

LCROSS separated from LRO shortly after launch, carrying the spent upper stage portion of the Centaur rocket with it, and proceeded to shepherd the rocket tank to the impact site. The trajectory consisted of a lunar flyby on June 23, 2009, followed by highly elliptical polar Earth orbits (Lunar Gravity Assist Lunar Return Orbits), designed to give the craft a high angle of impact and sufficient speed to maximize the amount of material kicked up during impact. The plan while in transit was to allow the fuel remaining in the rocket to dissipate and to turn the sides of the tank toward the sun in order to bake out residual water. The flight proceeded smoothly until August 22, 2009, when the operations team detected an alarming, mission-threatening anomaly as it prepared to orient the cold side of the tank toward the sun. Preceding this maneuver, during a planned break in communications with the spacecraft, a systems malfunction had caused the thrusters to fire almost continuously and burn a sizeable amount of propellant. However, the team resolved the spacecraft emergency in time to guide LCROSS to the impact site without running out of fuel. On October 9, 2009, the LCROSS shepherding spacecraft separated from the Centaur and sent the rocket tank hurtling toward the bottom of the Cabeus crater at a speed of about two kilometers per second. It then performed a braking maneuver to create a four-minute distance, positioned its instruments toward the impact site, and followed the Centaur down to strike the moon in its turn. The first impact dislodged a large plume of debris, dust, and vapor (approximately 250-350 metric tons), which was measured and photographed by the shepherding spacecraft before that spacecraft hit the surface minutes later. This final stage of the mission was timed so that LRO, orbiting high above the crash site, would be in position to collect data from both impact events.

The data returned from the instruments aboard LCROSS and LRO showed that the debris plume contained pure water ice grains as well as volatiles, such as methane, ammonia, hydrogen gas, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and some light metals, such as sodium and mercury. This detection of water on the moon definitively confirmed what the scientific community had already suspected based on data obtained from three earlier lunar missions that remotely detected the chemical signatures of water in the moon's polar regions: Clementine (Naval Research Laboratory, launched 1994), Lunar Prospector (NASA Ames Research Center, launched 1998), and Chandrayaan-1 (Indian Space Research Organization, launched 2008).

Mission Development and Management Northrop Grumman, located in Redondo Beach, California, designed and built the LCROSS spacecraft bus with oversight from the team at NASA Ames Research Center. In order to fit LCROSS into the launch vehicle as a secondary payload to LRO, an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adaptor, or ESPA ring, served as the main structure of the spacecraft. Designers placed the fuel tank inside the ring and positioned the science instruments, solar array, command and control systems, communications devices, antennas, and batteries around the outside of the ring. The craft carried a science payload of nine instruments designed and developed by NASA Ames for observing the impact and the characteristics of the resulting ejecta cloud: five cameras (one visible, two near infrared, and two mid-infrared), one total luminance photometer, one visible spectrometer, and two near infrared spectrometers.

On April 10, 2006 NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate selected the NASA Ames proposal for LCROSS to lift off as a secondary payload to the LRO. LCROSS had to remain within a budget of 79 million dollars, weigh less than 1,000 kilograms, and be completed in time for the LRO launch scheduled just 31 months following the selection date. To meet these requirements, the designers pursued a non-traditional approach, creatively employing various management measures and incorporating low-cost components. For example, they assembled a humble but fully capable control room from a series of networked personal computers patched into the secure local network at NASA Ames. The spacecraft incorporated durable, commercially-available, "off-the-shelf" materials such as the visible camera and other scientific instruments, and existing flight-qualified hardware, such as the ESPA ring, rather than costly, time- and resource-consuming custom-made items. The Centaur was repurposed for use as the kinetic impactor, thus maximizing the mass available to the working payload. Ultimately, the spacecraft was completed and approved on time, at a total mission cost of 79 million dollars.

The mission was managed from NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, under the direction of Project Manager Daniel R. Andrews of the Office of the Director of Programs and Projects, Project Management Division (Code PX). NASA Ames Principal Investigator Anthony Colaprete led the science investigations (Office of the Director of Science, Space Science and Astrobiology Division, Planetary Systems Branch, Code SST). Northrop Grumman, Goddard Space Flight Center, Kennedy Space Center, and the Deep Space Network provided operational support.

Social Media Outreach In addition to the usual channels such as traditional Web sites, printed publications, and broadcast media, the LCROSS mission team experimented with disseminating information to the public in real time through two social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter. Accounts were set up in June 2008 and maintained throughout the entire mission by Payload Scientist Kim Ennico Smith and Observation Coordinator and Co-Investigator Jennifer Heldmann, with support from other team members and NASA Ames public affairs officers. The Twitter feed, which was presented from the point of view of the spacecraft, was terminated after the impact event, followed by the Facebook page a few months later. On average, Twitter was updated about twice a day and Facebook twice a week, with heavier messaging during the launch, flyby, and impact events. Thousands of individuals from all over the world signed on as Facebook "fans" and Twitter "followers." Before the spacecraft launch, each outlet had about 2,000 followers, whose numbers climbed during the launch phase, then again during impact phase. After impact, there were over 11,000 Facebook fans and approximately 13,300 Twitter followers.

From the guide to the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Project Collection, 2007-2010, (Ames Research Center, )

Biographical History

Kenneth B. Wilton was born in the 1920s and raised in San Francisco, where he met and married his wife of 70 years. He came to work for Ames in 1941, when it was the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory (AAL), a part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). (AAL became NASA Ames Research Center in 1958 with the passage of the National Aeronautics and Space Act.)

During World War II, Wilton worked as a metalsmith in the Sheet Metal Branch and for the Army Quartermaster Corps stationed at Moffett Field. During his 33-year career at Ames, he held various positions in the technical shops, working as both a metalsmith and a draftsman. In 1966 he received a NASA Sustained Superior Performance Award, and in 1971 collected an Honorary Service Award for 30 years spent at Ames. Wilton retired in 1974.

Wilton invented his metal Bending Brake in 1964 in response to the need to create metal boxes with extremely tight tolerance specifications for use as instrument covers on spacecraft. The Bending Brake was patented May 21, 1968. Wilton included his colleague, Alfred Ercoline, as co-inventor on the patent because of Ercoline's suggestion to add an additional lever in the front of the brake to bend metal upward (shown in Figure 1, #32, 33 and 34, on the patent drawing). Wilton and Ercoline designed and fabricated the Bending Brake in the metal shop in building N220, located across the street from the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex. Following the release of articles in the trade press about the brake in December 1964, letters of inquiry poured into the Technology Utilization Office at Ames from corporations and universities interested in using the invention.

Wilton has been a lifelong gun enthusiast, and had a parallel career in small arms dealing in the South Bay. Prior to joining Ames, Wilton worked as a gunsmith repairing firearms at a San Francisco gun shop and by 1946 had established his own business, Wilton's Armory. Located first in Palo Alto and later in Saratoga, California, the shop was tended by Wilton on nights and weekends, and by his wife during the week.

From the guide to the Guide to the Kenneth B. Wilton and Alfred L. Ercoline Bending Brake and Related Records, 1964-1968, (Ames Research Center, )

Administrative History

The Ames Aeronautical Laboratory was the second laboratory of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA). It was located in Mountain View, California, adjacent to the Naval Air Station at Moffett Field. Construction began on December 20, 1939, starting with the flight research building, various wind tunnels, technical services facilities, and an administration building. The center was christened Ames Aeronautical Laboratory to honor Dr. Joseph Sweetman Ames, the chairman of NACA from 1927 to 1939 and a staunch advocate for basic scientific research and the responsibility of the federal government in training people for it. Responsibility for organizing the center rested with Smith J. DeFrance, who served as Center Director from 1940 to 1965, and Jack Parsons, who served as his assistant director for those years. DeFrance attracted to Ames some the brightest aeronautical engineers, encouraged them to build test facilities to prove their ideas, and then gave them freedom to pursue useful and exciting work.

During World War II, Ames kept its wind tunnels in almost constant operation, working with West coast aircraft manufacturers and their military customers to improve such famous production aircraft as the P-51 Mustang and the P-38 Lightning. Ames built the greatest collection of wind tunnels in the world, including the 1-by-3 foot supersonic tunnel, the workhorse 7-by-10 wind tunnels, the 12-foot pressurized tunnel, and the 40-by-80 foot full-scale wind tunnel, then the world's largest. Harry Goett led the flight and wind tunnel testing by which Ames solved many of the aerodynamic problems faced by jet aircraft as they went from subsonic to supersonic speeds. R.T. Jones developed his idea of the supersonic swept wing and the transonic area rule, which was verified in the Ames wind tunnels.

Ames also built an active flight test program. Pilot George Cooper devised an aircraft handling rating scale that put eventually led Ames into human factors research. One early research effort at Ames involved the use of flight test aircraft to devise a hot-air de-icing system for American aircraft. Lewis Rodert, who led that de-icing research program, won the 1947 Collier Trophy in recognition of the work done at Ames in service of the war effort.

Into the 1950s, Ames did research at ever greater speeds. Ames technicians built more sensitive instrumentation and faster wind tunnels to solve the challenges of jet aircraft and guided missiles. The Unitary Plan Wind Tunnels, opened in 1955, was an engineering masterpiece of three tunnels operating in an integrated system to make the most efficient use of drive motors and researchers' time. H. Julian Allen solved many of the most complex problems of the hypersonic regime, both with his own work and by leading an incredibly vibrant group of aerodynamicists. Allen, working with Alfred J. Eggers, proposed the concept of a blunt body shape for reentry vehicles. Then they created a complex of wind tunnels, ballistic ranges and arc jets which allowed them to develop all the technologies needed for astronauts to return safely to Earth.

On October 1, 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was born, absorbing the NACA and its laboratories. Ames was renamed the NASA Ames Research Center, and embraced America's space program. Ames continued its fundamental research in hypersonics and component technologies, then leveraged its expertise into new areas of space exploration. Ames became NASA's lead center in basic life sciences research, which included radiation and gravitational biology, exobiology, human factors, and space physiology and habitability. Ames aerodynamicists also explored the complex airflows around rotorcraft and devised the first tilt-rotor aircraft, while others modeled airflows using new supercomputers and created the field of computational fluid dynamics. To link these computers together, Ames engineers pioneered internetworking, using tools from the Silicon Valley firms growing around it. Ames engineers and planetary scientists managed a series of productive airborne science aircraft, of robotic probes into planetary atmosphere, and robotic explorers like the Pioneers and Lunar Prospector.

Into the 1990s, Ames created the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field as a place to draw university and corporate partners from nearby Silicon Valley into space exploration. Ames leaders continued to explore new ways to develop new technological capabilities--in astrobiology, robotics, communications, instrumentation, and small satellites--and apply them to NASA's evolving missions.

From the guide to the Archives Reference Collection, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Moffett Field, California, 1939-2005, (NASA Ames History Office. NASA Ames Research Center.)

Administrative History

The public affairs function at NASA Ames has operated under a variety of names. The Public Affairs Office (PAO, Code DI, Code DX), or Public Information Office (Code DXI), Media Relations Office (Code DXI), Media Services Office (Code DXI), External Affairs Office (Code DI), or Communication Branch (Code DXC), has always been part of the Office of the Director (Code D, Code ODA) of the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA.

Operating from 1958 through the present (2009) on behalf of the NASA Ames Research Center, the main task of the Public Affairs Office has been to provide the public with information about the activities of the Center. This task is mandated in the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act, which states that NASA, "in order to carry out the purpose of this Act, shall . . . provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof" (42 US Code 2473). In its own words, the Public Affairs Office "manages the public information creation and dissemination process to communicate and promote the vision, missions, capabilities and accomplishments of NASA and Ames" (NASA Ames Research Center Public Affairs Office. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/publicaffairs.html accessed February 12, 2008). The Public Affairs Office at NASA Ames has always coordinated its activities closely with the Public Affairs Office at NASA Headquarters, especially in terms of style guides and administrative procedures.

A major contribution of the Public Affairs Office has been its production and distribution of written and visual materials describing the people, facilities and research activities at Ames, such as reports and news releases with corresponding photographs, and the Center's internal newsletter, the Ames Astrogram . For nearly 50 years, the office has chronicled the Center's support of NASA missions and its significant contributions to such fields as aeronautics, planetary science, life science, astrobiology, computational fluid dynamics, robotics, and nanotechnology.

The origin of a public relations function at Ames predates its inclusion in NASA, beginning under a precursor organization known as the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory (AAL), which was established in 1939 as part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). According to Ames historian Edwin P. Hartman, early information dissemination efforts in AAL were limited to providing accurate research information, mainly in the form of Technical Notes, Technical Reports, and Technical Memoranda, to a select field of interested parties such as researchers, universities, and aircraft companies. Apparently, NACA questioned the ethicality of pursuing public relations efforts, and avoided this type of activity until a few years after World War II. Then, facing greater public scrutiny and more competition for funding, it became concerned with its public image and hired Aeronautical Information Officers for each of its laboratories. In March 1949, Don Wiley was appointed to be the first Aeronautical Information Officer for AAL, with Daniel S. Wentz II stepping in to replace him in 1953. Among their responsibilities, these men were charged with responding to inquiries about AAL from other organizations and the surrounding community. With the NACA's reincarnation as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1958, Wentz became the first Public Information Officer for NASA Ames. Through 2003, Wentz was succeeded by nine individuals in charge of the Center's core public affairs efforts: Bradford A. Evans (1962), Stanley Miller (1970), Lauren D. King (1981), Richard Reeves (1986), John F. Murphy (1988), Del Harding (1990), Michael Marlaire (1995), David R. Morse (1999), and Ann Sullivan (2003). In 1967, the title of Public Information Officer was discarded in favor of Public Affairs Officer, and in 1985 the title became, simply, "Chief" of the branch.

From the guide to the Public Affairs Office Records, 1940-2003, (Ames Research Center, )