NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Watch the construction of Sustainability Base in real time! This webcam is updated every 15 minutes.

Video Highlights

Sustainability Base is a NASA Ames project to create a supportive and nurturing workspace for employees. The project includes a high-performance building that will be a proof-of-concept of what can be accomplished today, as well as a living experimental platform, designed to incorporate new, energy-efficient technologies as they evolve. With NASA innovations and intelligence integrated throughout, the project represents sustainability done as only NASA can.

The building will be highly intelligent, even intuitive. It will be designed to anticipate and react to changes in sunlight, temperature, wind, and usage and will be able to optimize its performance automatically, in real time, in response to internal and external change.

Goals for the project include:

• "Zero net energy consumption" for the building.
• Reduce potable water consumption by over 90% when compared to an equivalent size building of conventional design.
• Significantly reduce building maintenance costs when compared to an equivalent size building of conventional design.

 



 

Sustainability Base is aligned with other future-oriented NASA Ames Earth and sustainability programs such as our collaborations with Google Earth and Cisco’s Planetary Skin. NASA Ames innovation is at the heart of this continuum of decision-support systems from planet to region to building to building-neighborhood to individual.

 

Learn more about partnering with us on this exciting project.

 

News:
August 25, 2009: NASA Ames Breaks Ground for 'Greenest' Federal Building Ever
August 25, 2009: NASA gets ready for new green building (San Jose Mercury News)
August 18, 2009: NASA Ames Celebrates Going Green with Sustainability Base
August 5, 2009: NASA's New Base Uses Smart Spaceship Tech on the Ground (on Popsci.com)
August 5, 2009: NASA Goes Green With New Sustainability Base (on LiveScience.com). Or view the same article on msnbc.com.
July 30, 2009: NASA Ames Awards Contract to Build Sustainability Base



 

NASA Technology to Enhance 'Green' Building's Efficiency, January 14, 2010

NASA today announced that it is collaborating with Integrated Building Solutions (IBS), Inc. to develop a next-generation intelligent, automated, and integrated environmental monitoring and management capability for office buildings and research environments.

The building control systems being developed jointly by NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and IBS signal a new era in the evolution of 'green,' sustainable buildings. They will enhance energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and maximize worker performance and comfort. 'Sustainability Base,' the environmentally friendly building that is being constructed at NASA’s Ames, is expected to be completed in late 2010 and will be a testbed for these new 'smart' systems.

"We are thrilled to be applying NASA aerospace technologies to our everyday living and working environments," said Steven Zornetzer, associate center director at NASA Ames. "This collaboration represents the first of many research partnerships for Sustainability Base that will bring NASA technologies down to Earth and connect them with capabilities from the private sector to leverage taxpayer investment and improve the quality of life for everyone."

Ames engineers are working with their IBS counterparts to repurpose NASA-developed software systems for health and resource planning into a building environment. The NASA technologies were originally developed for everything from aircraft control systems to mission planning for the Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. A suite of these NASA software tools is now being integrated with IBS's Intelligent Building Interface System. The latter provides centralized management, monitoring, automation, and analysis of building systems in an intuitive, browser-based console. The resulting building-control system will interpret data from sensors and merge this information with occupancy calendars and local weather predictions.

Multiple sensors deployed throughout the building will monitor its power demand, air temperature, moisture, air flow, light levels, and water consumption. The system will “learn” about the facility’s dynamics, including the human component, and will continuously evolve to produce better operational outcomes based on identifying connections, consequences, and trends.

"The resulting integrated intelligent controls system will gather information about the building and its subsystems, the occupants, the resources available, and upcoming events," said Dougal Maclise, lead engineer for the Integrated Systems Health Management Technology Maturation Group at NASA Ames. "It then will use this information to plan and implement a control strategy to maintain the comfort of the occupants, while minimizing energy consumption and its carbon footprint."

"We believe that combining NASA technology with our own software represents the future in smart building-control and automation technology," said Eugene Gutkin, President of IBS. "We are thrilled to be working with a great partner like NASA on this exciting and groundbreaking project."

 

Groundbreaking and Dedication Ceremony, August 25, 2009

On August 25, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. until 2:30 p.m., Ames Research Center will conduct a ceremonial groundbreaking and dedication event for what we expect will become the highest performing building in the federal government. Named Sustainability Base, our new building will be a showplace for sustainable technologies, featuring "NASA Inside" through the incorporation of some of the agency’s most advanced recycling and intelligent controls technologies originally developed to support NASA’s human and robotic space exploration missions. In this 40th anniversary year of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon and humanity’s first historic steps onto the surface of another world, we have chosen the name Sustainability Base as an homage to the original "Tranquility Base" and the brave astronauts and other men and women of NASA who accomplished what is generally regarded to be the defining event of the twentieth century. We believe that Sustainability Base will serve as a window to the future of humankind and a symbol of NASA’s continuing leadership in seeing, understanding and benefiting life on Earth.

AGENDA
1:00 - Welcome and Opening Remarks, Dr. Steven Zornetzer, Associate Center Director
1:05 - Special Welcome, Lt. Governor John Garamendi, State of California
1:10 - Director’s Welcome/Comments, Dr. Simon P. ‘Pete’ Worden, NASA Ames Center Director
1:15 - Special Guest Remarks, Carl Guardino, President and CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group
1:20 - Special Guest Remarks, Marianna Grossman, Executive Director, Sustainable Silicon Valley
1:25 - Architect’s Remarks, Kevin Burke, Partner and Director of Practice, McDonough + Partners
1:30 - Architect’s Remarks, June Grant, Architect, AECOM Design
1:35 - Sustainability Base Video, Steven Zornetzer, Introduction and Screening
1:40 - Closing Remarks and Adjournment, Steven Zornetzer
1:45 - Groundbreaking Site Short Program, Turning of Soil and Unveiling Ceremony
1:50–3:00 - Technology Information Booths and Demonstrations open. The Ames Jazz Band will perform. Light refreshments and Beverages will be available.