David G. Bell

NASA World Wind: Opensource GIS for Mission Operations

This paper describes NASA World Wind, its technical architecture and performance, and its emerging use for mission operations. World Wind is a geographic information system that provides graphical access to terabytes of imagery and elevation models for planets and other celestial objects including satellite and other data of the Earth, Moon, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter; as well as astronomical data made available through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. World Wind is also a customizable system that can be integrated as part of other applications. World Wind is not only an application in which add-ons can be integrated, but is also being developed as a plugin that can be integrated with other applications. This paper also describes the significant contributions of the international opensource community in making World Wind what it is today. Contributions have involved the following: 1) lead development of add-ons, several of which have been integrated as part of the core system available for direct download via sourceforge, 2) lead provider of high-resolution data sets, 3) lead help desk support through Internet relay chat for end-users and developers, and 4) significant technical contributions to the core system including bug identification, tracking and resolution as well as ideas for new features and source code modifications.

On Space Exploration And Human Error - A Paper on Reliability and Safety

NASA space exploration should largely address a problem class in reliability and risk management stemming primarily from human error, system risk and multi-objective trade-off analysis, by conducting research into system complexity, risk characterization and modeling, and system reasoning. In general, in every mission we can distinguish risk in three possible ways: a) known-known, b) known-unknown, and c) unknown-unknown. It is probable almost certain that space exploration will partially experience similar known or unknown risks embedded in the Apollo missions, Shuttle or Station unless something alters how NASA will perceive and manage safety and reliability.

Semi-structured data management in the enterprise: a nimble, high-throughput, and scalable approach

In this paper we describe an approach and system for managing enterprise semi-structured data that is high-throughput, nimble, and scalable. We present the NETMARK system, which provides for a schemaless way of managing semi-structured documents. We describe in particular detail the unique underlying data storage approach and efficient query processing mechanisms given this storage system. We present an extensive benchmark evaluation of the NETMARK system and also compare it with related XML management systems. At the heart of the approach is the philosophy of a focus on most common data management requirements in the enterprise, and not burdening users and application developers with unnecessary complexity and formal schemas.

Lean middleware

This paper describes an approach to achieving data integration across multiple sources in an enterprise, in a manner that does not require heavy investment in database and middleware maintenance. This lean approach to integration leads to cost-effectiveness and scalability of data integration in the enterprise.

Earned Value Management at NASA: An Integrated, Lightweight Solution

This paper describes a fresh approach to earned value management (EVM) at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The goal of this approach is to provide a lightweight tool that allows project managers to apply earned value performance measurements with minimal effort in terms of data entry, and without the need to learn the highly specialized jargon that mystifies many EVM solutions. The presented technical and managerial solution addresses the practical challenges of applying EVM in the messy realm of project management. An empirical case study involving five projects at the NASA Ames Research Center illustrates the challenges of creating a consistent performance measurement baseline under the constraints of schedule, budget, and labor requirements, and of matching actual costs with budgeted costs on the level of granularity needed. The case study also highlights the benefits of using the implemented EVM solution in terms of data quality and time savings. The paper concludes with general recommendations for the design and application of EVM tools with the focus on ease of use.

The NASA program management tool: a new vision in business intelligence

This paper describes a novel approach to business intelligence and program management for large technology enterprises like the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Two key distinctions of the approach are that 1) standard business documents are the user interface, and 2) a schema-less XML database enables flexible integration of technology information for use by both humans and machines in a highly dynamic environment. The implementation utilizes patent-pending NASA software called the NASA program management tool (PMT) and its underlying schema-less XML database called Netmark. Initial benefits of PMT include elimination of discrepancies between business documents that use the same information and paperwork reduction for program and project management in the form of reducing the effort required to understand standard reporting requirements and to comply with those reporting requirements. We project that the underlying approach to business intelligence will enable significant benefits in the timeliness, integrity and depth of business information available to decision makers on all organizational levels

Towards G2G: systems of technology database systems

We present an approach and methodology for developing Government-to-Government (G2G) systems of technology database systems. G2G will deliver technologies for distributed and remote integration of technology data for internal use in analysis and planning as well as for external communications. G2G enables NASA managers, engineers, operational teams and information systems to compose technology roadmaps and plans by selecting, combining, extending, specializing and modifying components of technology database systems. G2G will interoperate information and knowledge that is distributed across organizational entities involved that is ideal for NASA future Exploration Enterprise. Key contributions of the G2G system will include the creation of an integrated approach to sustain effective management of technology investments that supports the ability of various technology database systems to be independently managed. The integration technology will comply with emerging open standards. Applications can thus be customized for local needs while enabling an integrated management of technology approach that serves the global needs of NASA. The G2G capabilities will use NASAs breakthrough in database composition and integration technology, will use and advance emerging open standards, and will use commercial information technologies to enable effective System of Technology Database systems

Automated Software Verification & Validation: An Emerging Approach for Ground Operations

Software is an increasingly critical component in aerospace systems, and automated software testing technologies that use formal methods are emerging as a new type of ground data system for verifying and validating software changes. With each change made to software for use in operational settings, there is the opportunity for new bugs to be introduced that can cause potentially catastrophic results. This research has evolved two formal method approaches for automated software verification and validation model checking and static analysis, with extensions of the approaches for multiple languages including Java, C and C++. The research is removing the barriers to routine use of formal methods to gain high assurance for human-rated space missions. These methods have been used on control software for a variety of mission critical systems including guidance, navigation and control (GN&C) subsystems, and for various projects such as the NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).

Business intelligence in large organizations: integrating which data?

This paper describes a novel approach to business intelligence and program management for large technology enterprises like the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Two key distinctions of the approach are that 1) standard business documents are the user interface, and 2) a “schema-less” XML database enables flexible integration of technology information for use by both humans and machines in a highly dynamic environment. The implementation utilizes patent-pending NASA software called the NASA Program Management Tool (PMT) and its underlying “schema-less” XML database called Netmark. Initial benefits of PMT include elimination of discrepancies between business documents that use the same information and “paperwork reduction” for program and project management in the form of reducing the effort required to understand standard reporting requirements and to comply with those reporting requirements. We project that the underlying approach to business intelligence will enable significant benefits in the timeliness, integrity and depth of business information available to decision makers on all organizational levels.

Integrating engineering data systems for NASA spaceflight projects

NASA has a large range of custom-built and commercial data systems to support spaceflight programs. Some of the systems are re-used by many programs and projects over time. Management and systems engineering processes require integration of data across many of these systems, a difficult problem given the widely diverse nature of system interfaces and data models. This paper describes an ongoing project to use a central data model with a web services architecture to support the integration and access of linked data across engineering functions for multiple NASA programs. The work involves the implementation of a web service-based middleware system called Data Aggregator to bring together data from a variety of systems to support space exploration. Data Aggregator includes a central data model registry for storing and managing links between the data in disparate systems. Initially developed for NASAs Constellation Program needs, Data Aggregator is currently being repurposed to support the International Space Station Program and new NASA projects with processes that involve significant aggregating and linking of data. This change in user needs led to development of a more streamlined data model registry for Data Aggregator in order to simplify adding new project application data as well as standardization of the Data Aggregator query syntax to facilitate cross-application querying by client applications. This paper documents the approach from a set of stand-alone engineering systems from which data are manually retrieved and integrated, to a web of engineering data systems from which the latest data are automatically retrieved and more quickly and accurately integrated. This paper includes the lessons learned through these efforts, including the design and development of a service-oriented architecture and the evolution of the data model registry approaches as the effort continues to evolve and adapt to support multiple NASA programs and priorities.