NASA's Ames Research Center. The NASA Experience provides a dynamic and interactive space for the public to learn about local contributions to space exploration across the years. From models of spacecraft and genuine spacesuits from as early as the Mercury and Gemini missions to artifacts related to NASA's upcoming Artemis missions, the NASA Ames Visitor Center gives visitors access to over 80 years of Ames history and a look into current and future projects. Ames' expertise in wind tunnel testing, rover design and testing, space robotics, supercomputing, and more is on display. The exhibit was opened on November 12th, 2021. NASA Ames Exploration Center The NASA Ames Exploration Center is a science museum and education center for NASA. There are displays and interactive exhibits about NASA technology, missions and space exploration. A Moon rock, meteorite, and other geologic samples are on display. The theater shows movies with footage from NASA's explorations of Mars and the planets, and about the contributions of the scientists at Ames. This facility is currently closed. Robotics Alliance Project In 1999, Mark León developed NASA's Robotics Education Project — now called the Robotics Alliance Project — under his mentor Dave Lavery, which has reached over 100,000 students nationwide using FIRST robotics and BOTBALL robotics competitions. The Project's FIRST branch originally comprised FRC Team 254: "The Cheesy Poofs", an all-male team from Bellarmine High School in San Jose, California. In 2006, Team 1868: "The Space Cookies", an all-female team, was founded in collaboration with the Girl Scouts. In 2012, Team 971: "Spartan Robotics" of Mountain View High School joined the Project, though the team continues to operate at their school. All three teams are highly decorated. All three have won Regional competitions, two have won the FIRST Championship, two have won the Regional Chairman's Award, and one is a Hall of Fame team. The three teams are collectively referred to as "House teams". The mission of the project is "To create a human, technical, and programmatic resource of robotics capabilities to enable the implementation of future robotic space exploration missions." Public-private partnerships The federal government has re-tasked portions of the facility and human resources to support private sector industry, research, and education. HP became the first corporate affiliate of a new Bio-Info-Nano Research and Development Institute (BIN-RDI); a collaborative venture established by the University of California Santa Cruz and NASA, based at Ames. The Bio|Info|Nano R&D Institute