An astrochemist and space scientist, Huntress worked for about twenty years at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Following his work with NASA, he became the director of the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution, and the president of The Planetary Society.
[3] Huntress spent much of his career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also teaching as a professor at the associated California Institute of Technology.
His work there included research into the chemical evolution in interstellar clouds, comets and planetary atmospheres.
[6][7] During the 1980s, Huntress was a video game programmer for the Apple II computer, creating space flight simulators.
They were published through Sublogic (Saturn Navigator), Edu-Ware (Rendezvous: A Space Shuttle Flight Simulation),[8] and Electric Transit.
[13] Upon taking the position, he became an advocate for reforming the Discovery Program for low-cost planetary exploration missions, to make it more cost-effective, including the opening of proposals from private companies to participate in the running of the program, creating a public-private partnership for Solar System exploration.
"[27] Following his time at NASA, Huntress became the director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory in the fall of 1998, and remained in this position until his retirement in 2008.
[28] His research has included the evolution of interstellar medium, and pre-biotic organic chemistry on early Earth.
"[30] As a result of his views, he was asked by then-administrator Michael D. Griffin to resign his position with the council in August 2006.