History Happening Now
Standing with Our Asian American Community
By Nicholas Perry MVHA Past President
The Mountain View Historical Association Board of Directors stands in solidarity with the Asian American community and all those impacted by recent attacks and hate crimes locally and across the country .
These recent events have highlighted the racism and discrimination that Asian Americans have faced for generations . The Mountain View community has long taken great pride in its diversity , but our city has not been immune to the impacts of racism ; from anti-Chinese campaigns in the 1880s , to the internment of our Japanese community during World War II , to other less headline-grabbing acts of discrimination .
On Sunday , April 11 a Stop Asian Hate March & Rally took place in Downtown Mountain View . MVHA Board Secretary Jamil Shaikh ( upper right photo ) was at the march and took photos to include in our archives . For more information on the march , visit
https :// chrischiang . wixsite . com / aapimv .
Our organization is dedicated to documenting and sharing the history of Mountain View , both the good and the bad . We welcome your thoughts on how we can continue to meet that mission . Fostering a deep understanding of our diverse community ’ s complex history , and learning from the lessons our history offers us , are key to charting a course toward a better , more just future .
NASA Ames Contributes to Mars 2020 Mission
By Pamela Baird MVHA President
The recent successful landing of the Mars 2020 Perseverance was made in part by the research and ground-breaking technologies developed at the NASA Ames facility at Moffett in Mountain View . The mission of the Perseverance rover is to better understand the climate and geology of Mars and to search for ancient microbial life .
Four key contributions to the mission were made at Ames . According to the NASA website these included entry systems , a thermal protection system , helping the first Mars helicopter fly , and measuring the extreme environment during landing .
These contributions built upon earlier technologies developed at Ames , which led the design , testing and development of thermal protection for the 2012 Curiosity program . Ames participated in the redesign of the Mars 2020 entry parachute , which needed to be strengthened . The wind tunnel on Moffett , which is managed and operated by the US Air Force , is the only facility in the world capable of testing the full-size parachute canopy .
Illustration of NASA ’ s Mars 2020 Perserverance Rover entering the Martian atmosphere . ( Source : NASA / JPL-Caltech )
Critical computer modeling and research established that infrared radiation from carbon dioxide is a key contributor to spacecraft heating during Mars entry . Experiments were conducted in the Electric Arc Shock Tube facility at Ames , the only facility in the United States capable of simulating the radiative heating experienced by a spacecraft as it enters an atmosphere at high speed .
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