On-Site Lodging at Ames

The Exchange at Ames operates a variety of lodging options, right on center.

If you’re visiting Ames for an extended period, you’ll need lodging that’s in the area, and affordable. This article will go over the lodging options that we have on-center.

Who May Stay?
Personnel in the following categories are considered eligible:

• APPEL course participants
• ARC college student program participants
• TDY visitors to NASA or other federal agencies on official orders
• Visiting university faculty, post-doctoral students (to NASA only)
• Visitors to ARC or other federal agency on-site contractors to conduct NASA or resident agency related business
• Active duty or reserve-on-active-duty military with orders
• ARC employees conducting business facilitated by overnight accommodation (e.g. ongoing experiment, major conference)
• ARC employees for their personal convenience
• NASA and military service retirees
• Accompanying family members of the above
• NRP Tenants and their guests (foreign nationals must be cleared through security prior to NRP and lodge access)

Making A Reservation

Please contact the front desk for all inquiries.

Business Hours: Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 4:00pm

Phone: (650) 604-8100

Email:  info@nasalodge.com

Check-In: 3:00 PM   (Contactless check-in is available after business hours.)
Check-Out: 11:00 AM

All reservations require an email address and a cell phone number. Credit card information is required prior to check-in by calling the front desk. Cancellations or changes must be done at least 24 hours prior to check-in via email at info@nasalodge.com or calling the front desk at (650) 604-8100. If you fail to cancel your reservation, you will be charged for one night’s stay.

Building 19 Premium King Room

• 24 Remodeled Modern Rooms
• Luxurious Restroom with Walk-in Shower & Towel Warmers
• Central A/C & Heating
• Spacious Closet Space
• Work Desk Space
• Mini Refrigerator with Freezer
• Flat Screen TV with Full DirecTV Access Including HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Etc.
• In-Room Safe
• Complimentary Coffee & Bottled Water
• Iron & Ironing Board
• Robust Power Outlets USB-A & USB-C
• Dimmable Lighting
• Keyless RFID Entry
• NASA-Connect Accessible
• Free Parking
• Complimentary Breakfast

Building 19- Standard Queen Room

• 20 Remodeled Queen Rooms
• A/C Window Unit
• Heater Unit
• Work Desk Space
• Private Bathroom
• Mini Refrigerator with freezer
• Flatscreen TV
• In-Room Safe
• Iron & Iron Board
• NASA-Connect Accessible
• Free Parking
• Complimentary Breakfast

Buildings 583 A & B Dorms

• Queen & Twin Size Bed Options
• Work Desk Space
• Private Restroom
• Microwave
• Refrigerator with Freezer (Size varies)
• Access Communal Kitchen
• NASA-Connect Accessible
• Flatscreen TV Available in Select Rooms

Visiting the Event Center

Due to the nature of being a NASA facility, there are some special considerations that must be taken into account.

Traveling To & From
The Event Center is located on the publicly accessible side of the Ames campus. If you plan to arrive via ride share, please be aware that the vehicle and driver must have a valid RealID Drivers License and vehicle registration documents. All passengers will need valid ID as well.

U.S. Citizens must show a valid, officially-issued RealID at the NASA Research Park gate to enter onto the NASA Research Park, where the SVEC is located.
All Foreign Nationals must go through NASA badging procedures to attend meetings at the SVEC.

NASA Transfer Technology and Export Control
If you are having NASA speakers and Non-NASA attendees, your speakers must clear the information with the “NASA” Export Control Office.

Upcoming Events for the Public

Check below for upcoming events that are open to the public being held at the Event Center

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday

NASA has selected Barrios Technology, LLC, in Houston to provide technical integration services for the agency’s human space flight programs.

The Mission Technical Integration Contract is a cost-plus-award-fee and cost-plus-incentive fee contract with core and indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity requirements. It has a total estimated value of approximately $450 million, and a period of performance beginning Oct. 1, and ending on Sept. 30, 2027, along with four one-year option periods through 2031.

Under the contract, the contractor will provide technical integration and related services for multiple human space flight programs. These services include program, business, configuration and data management, information technology, systems engineering and integration, mission integration, safety and mission assurance, and operations.

For information about the agency and its programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

-end-

Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov

Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, Planetary Geologist at University of New Brunswick

Earth planning date: Wednesday, July 23, 2025

For today’s planning, we were in the same workspace as the Monday plan — on purpose! We don’t often have a plan without a drive but in order to allow the battery to recover from some power-hungry SAM atmospheric measurements over the weekend and on Monday, we needed to stay put and skip our usual drive. As a result, we gained a bonus planning cycle at this interesting workspace. 

We are in one of the “hollows” between the resistant ridges of the “boxwork” terrain, as you can see in the image for this blog. This made for a quieter Operations day for me as the APXS planner. As Deborah noted in Monday’s blog, we have already gotten three APXS and MAHLI measurements in this workspace, so we didn’t acquire more in this plan.

This morning, we focused on documenting some small light-toned, rounded, white pebbles in the workspace (you can see them in the accompanying Navcam image), which look very different from the underlying bedrock. We used our one ChemCam LIBS analysis for the plan on “Yana Qaqa.” Mastcam will image this pebble, another at “Ojos del Salado,” and a really cool-looking target with a dendritic-looking texture at “Punta de Lobos.”

Further afield, Mastcam will image the adjacent boxwork ridge and hollow in our drive direction, and a series of troughs with raised edges to the right of our current workspace. ChemCam will image a long-distance RMI mosaic of “Cueva de los Vencejos y Murciélagos,” which was imaged by Mastcam on Monday, and also acquire some further images of the “Mishe Mokwa” hill.

We had a bumper couple of sols of atmospheric measurements over the weekend and Monday. Now we revert back to our more normal environmental and atmospheric monitoring. These do not get as much attention sometimes as the amazing images we take of the fascinating rocks we see, but have been taking place consistently and continuously since Curiosity’s landing almost 13 years ago now. This plan includes a series of Navcam movies (suprahorizon, dust devil) and a line-of-sight observation of dust, standard REMS and DAN observations, and two Mastcam tau measurements, looking at dust in the atmosphere.

Our 24-meter drive (almost 79 feet) will take us out of this hollow and back up on top of a ridge. From here, we hope to be able to spy the best driving path through the boxwork. The ridges are up to 5 meters in diameter (about 16 feet), so we are cautiously hopeful that we can just trundle along one of the ridges as we investigate this fascinating terrain.

Join the 2025 NASA International Space Apps Challenge: Learn, Launch, Lead

On October 4–5, 2025, NASA—along with 14 international space agency partners—invites scientists, engineers, coders, designers, storytellers, and space enthusiasts of all kinds to take part in the 2025 NASA International Space Apps Challenge. This two-day global hackathon brings together diverse teams to tackle real-world problems using NASA’s open data, alongside space-based data from agencies around the world.

This year’s theme, Learn, Launch, Lead, encourages participants to:

• Learn new skills and deepen their understanding of STEM,
• Launch bold ideas by transforming open data into actionable solutions, and
• Lead communities in pioneering innovation and discovery.

Participants will collaborate to develop creative, open-source projects that address Earth and space-related challenges. Whether you’re a seasoned developer, an aspiring student, or a creative thinker, there’s a place for you in this global movement.

Together, we’ll use the power of open data and global collaboration to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges—on Earth and beyond.

Learn more and register now!

OSDR Chats: Dr Begum Mathyk Presents Latest Research in this OSDR-Enabled Publication

Welcome to “OSDR Chats,” an interview series featuring authors of publications that were enabled by the Open Science Data Repository (OSDR). Researchers share highlights and insights into their work, emphasizing the valuable roles played by the OSDR in their research. This newest interview features Dr Begum Mathyk  who discusses her paper “Spaceflight induces changes in gene expression profiles linked to insulin and estrogen“, one of 45 that were part of the Nature Press package publications.

Organismal adaptations to spaceflight have been characterized at the molecular level in model organisms, including Drosophila and C. elegans. This study extends such molecular work to energy metabolism and sex hormone signaling in mice and humans. The findings of this research underscore the critical importance of in-depth hormonal studies on the effects of space travel, which are vital for enabling further human exploration of space. The study also emphasizes the need for further research focused on women’s health and the development of tailored healthcare strategies for space environments.

OSDR recently spoke to Dr Mathyk to hear about the highlights of this publication and about how the OSDR and Analysis Working Groups (AWGs) enabled this publication.

The swirling spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is NGC 3285B, which resides 137 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra (the Water Snake). Hydra has the largest area of the 88 constellations that cover the entire sky in a celestial patchwork. It’s also the longest constellation, stretching 100 degrees across the sky. It would take nearly 200 full moons, placed side by side, to reach from one side of the constellation to the other.

NGC 3285B is a member of the Hydra I cluster, one of the largest galaxy clusters in the nearby universe. Galaxy clusters are collections of hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound to one another by gravity. The Hydra I cluster is anchored by two giant elliptical galaxies at its center. Each of these galaxies is about 150,000 light-years across, making them about 50% larger than our home galaxy, the Milky Way.

NGC 3285B sits on the outskirts of its home cluster, far from the massive galaxies at the center. This galaxy drew Hubble’s attention because it hosted a Type Ia supernova in 2023. Type Ia supernovae happen when a type of condensed stellar core called a white dwarf detonates, igniting a sudden burst of nuclear fusion that briefly shines about 5 billion times brighter than the Sun. The supernova, named SN 2023xqm, is visible here as a blueish dot on the left edge of the galaxy’s disk.

Hubble observed NGC 3285B as part of an observing program that targeted 100 Type Ia supernovae. By viewing each of these supernovae in ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared light, researchers aim to disentangle the effects of distance and dust, both of which can make a supernova appear redder than it actually is. This program will help refine cosmic distance measurements that rely on observations of Type Ia supernovae.

Text credit: ESA/Hubble

For Melissa John, protecting the environment is her way of contributing to space exploration while preserving the Earth we call home.  

As the sustainability program lead at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in Las Cruces, New Mexico, John manages efforts to reduce waste, prevent pollution, and promote eco-conscious practices. Over the past 13 years, she has helped shape a workplace culture that values innovation and environmental responsibility. 

Through awareness campaigns and outreach events, John empowers employees to be mindful of their environmental impact. Whether she is fostering grassroots connections, leading hands-on events, or recognizing colleagues who prioritize climate-aware actions, John remains dedicated to making a lasting, positive impact on the planet. 

John credits her Diné heritage and cultural values for fueling her passion to protect and preserve Earth for future generations. 

John began her NASA career at White Sands as a document specialist, reviewing schedules and environmental reports. She later transitioned into technical editing and gradually got involved in green initiatives, volunteering her time before eventually stepping into her current leadership role. 

Now, she coordinates a sitewide working group dedicated to reducing the facility’s environmental impact and inspires others to think critically about everyday actions and their ripple effects. 

John did not always know how she would make her mark. 

“Growing up, I remember a teacher asking how we could make a difference in the world,” she said. “I never forgot that question.” 

During the years she spent working in accounting and in the mining industry, she kept returning to that question. It was not until she joined NASA that she found her answer: 

“This — this is how I make my difference in the world.” 

The work also helped John grow in ways she did not expect. 

“I was painfully shy as a kid and terrified of speaking in front of a crowd,” she said. “But when I took on this role, I knew I had to find my voice. I still have timid moments, but the pride I feel in this work helps me push through. I’ve been through a lot, but I’m still here learning, growing, and showing up for the team I now call family.” 

John credits her strong support system for that transformation. “I am in awe of the women I’ve worked with,” she said. “I hope I can inspire others as they have inspired me.” 

Whether on Earth or beyond it, John believes that thoughtful action today leads to a brighter tomorrow. She is committed to leaving the world a better place for the next generation. Her legacy is simple: “Clean air, clean water, and clean land — that’s what I want to pass on.”