Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On October 17, the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) announced plans to invest $2 billion in Silicon Valley's NASA Ames Research Park to build an aerospace education and research complex called Berkeley Space Center.

The center will include offices, laboratories, classrooms, residential and retail space, covering nearly 35 acres (about 14 hectares). According to the statement, short-term accommodation facilities and housing for students and teachers are also planned in the future.

Universities are increasingly inclined to build large off-campus centers to promote the combination of research and industry. The Berkeley Space Center's model draws on CornellUniversity's technology complex on Roosevelt Island Island in New York City and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JetPropulsion Laboratory) in Pasadena, managed by the California Institute of Technology.

"I don't know where else in the world can combine the essence of NASA with the essence of the University of California, Berkeley, especially in the heart of Silicon Valley," says DanKingsley, managing partner of SKS Partners, the project manager. He added: "Silicon Valley is still unique."

The project could be an opportunity for the region as technology companies are laying off staff and cutting costs. The commercial space economy is expected to double to $1.1 trillion by 2030, according to Bank of America.

The new Berkeley Space Center will take advantage of the site that NASA reserved for academic and research purposes more than two decades ago, namely Moffet Field (MoffettField), south of San Francisco. This area was originally developed as a U.S. Naval base in the 1930s for the parking of naval airships. A huge hangar that was built at that time still exists today, and Google's PlanetaryVentures department is helping to repair it.

According to Kingsley, once approved, construction of the Berkeley Space Center is expected to begin as early as 2026, with the first buildings open in two years' time. SKSPartners will be responsible for raising investor funds and managing construction, while CBRE will be responsible for leasing.

Potential tenants of the Berkeley Space Center include companies that develop vertical take-off and landing aircraft and startups in astrobiology. Astrobiology is a field that studies how to cultivate organisms in space and the effects of zero gravity on the human body.

NASA Ames Research Center has made a lot of contributions to research in the fields of astronomy, satellite design and supercomputing.

AlexBayen, vice president of the project at UC Berkeley, said: "through this new research centre and partnerships with NASA and the public sector, we will be able to achieve results in a number of science, engineering and technology areas and promote the development of the global university model."

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.