09/16/03 -- Mars Flyer Debuts on the Hyperwall
As NASA’s twin Mars Exploration Rovers undergo a remarkable journey to the Red Planet, aerospace experts at Ames Research Center are using the “hyperwall,” a unique visualization tool developed in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division, to study the aerodynamics of a future Mars spacecraft.

Together with powerful, custom-built software, the hyperwall’s seven-by-seven array of flat panel screens—each harnessed to its own powerful computer—allows NASA scientists like Michael Aftosmis and Marian Nemec to examine thousands of multi-parameter simulations and instantly study behavior patterns in the data. Aftosmis and Nemec, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) specialists, recently ran 4,700 CFD simulations to study the preliminary aerodynamics of a Mars flyer design in a variety of flight conditions and control surface settings.

“Up until now, CFD simulations have been used to look at a particular set of conditions and it’s been hard to understand trends,” said Aftosmis. “The hyperwall is a key tool—the only way to obtain insight and understanding of trends and behavior patterns.”“Up until now, CFD simulations have been used to look at a particular set of conditions and it’s been hard to understand trends,” said Aftosmis. “The hyperwall is a key tool—the only way to obtain insight and understanding of trends and behavior patterns.”

“Normally you simulate the flow over a spacecraft and you see what it’s doing and why,” explains Aftosmis. “What you don’t see is that if conditions were only slightly different, performance may be completely different. The hyperwall shows us that.”

Brainchild of NAS senior scientist Chris Henze, the hyperwall allows researchers to use different tools, viewpoints, and parameters to display the same data or datasets. Each of the 49 computers can display, process, and share data, so a single image can be displayed across all screens (similar to the less versatile powerwall systems), or endless configurations of data can be displayed in selected “cells,” like a giant spreadsheet.

“We’ve used an application-driven approach for the development of the hyperwall, and have had several very productive collaborations with scientists in a number of disciplines,” said Henze. “One unexpected benefit is that it has proved to be a great collaborative environment. Groups have access to the display, so people can get up and point at things or shout things out. It’s been a great brainstorming catalyst.”

Additional projects that have benefited from the hyperwall’s powerful versatility include studies of galaxy clustering, simulated carbon nanotube experiments, and satellite imaging of the Earth.

For more information on the NAS Division’s hyperwall, contact Chris Henze at chenze@nas.nasa.gov.

09/09/03 -- Earth Science Data will be Used to Manage Indian Reservation
A proposal to help the Lakota tribe manage land use issues by means of NASA’s Information Power Grid (IPG) resources and Earth science data has been awarded funding through a NASA cooperative agreement. The proposal calls for a joint collaboration with NASA’s IPG team, Sinte Gleska University (a tribal university on the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota), Earth Sat, Global Science & Technology, Inc., and the Earth Resources Observing Systems (EROS) Data Center, a field center for the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Mapping Division.

The proposed work will receive funding to use Earth science data provided by EROS on the Rosebud reservation. Comprised of 890,000 acres, the reservation is particularly difficult to oversee without the use of planes to conduct aerial surveys—an expense the tribe cannot afford. In addition to assisting with land management, the data will be used to track tribal history. Ancestors of the Lakota people were buffalo hunters, and examining data provided by EROS may shed light on previous buffalo migration patterns. IPG resources will be used to help collect, transport, and process all the Earth science data across multiple locations.

“The grid will serve as the underpinnings for all of the distributed systems required for this work. All of the infrastructure required is on the grid—and we [the IPG team] will provide the support needed,” explained Tom Hinke, senior scientist and IPG team member in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division at Ames Research Center.

Sinte Gleska University hopes this effort will spark economic growth on the reservation, which currently has an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent. If successful, this method may also be used to help other tribes with large land holdings manage their reservations.

Proposals were solicited by NASA’s Office of Earth Science, which is responsible for ensuring that data, technology, and capabilities acquired and developed by NASA are exploited to the maximum extent possible for the benefit of society and the economy of the nation. To help meet this objective, the Office of Earth Science explores solutions that utilize these resources to help better understand and predict Earth’s changes. The projects funded under this program will join ongoing NASA data and information projects to form the NASA Earth Science Research, Education and Applications Solution Network (Earth Science REASoN).

For more information about the IPG team’s role in this collaboration, contact Tom Hinke at thinke@mail.arc.nasa.gov.

07/09/03 -- NASA Grid Technology Shines at GGF8
The NAS Division’s reputation for spearheading grid technologies was reinforced at the recent Global Grid Forum 8 (GGF8) in Seattle, when a team of NASA’s Information Power Grid (IPG) scientists hosted workshops and showcased IPG technologies. Several NAS presentations resulted in proposals for collaboration, requests for software, and invitations for increased participation in research and working groups.

Among the presentations by grid experts around the world was NAS scientist Rebekah Lepro’s overview of Cardea, a dynamic authorization system developed for the IPG. “Rebekah's work on the Cardea system is a perfect example of the kind of work we are doing for the IPG -- Identifying problems with existing grid middleware and developing solutions to fill the gaps,” said NAS IPG lead, Tony Lisotta. “From what I heard from other participants at GGF, her work is definitely ahead of the curve in this area.” As a result of the presentation, Lepro was urged to participate more heavily in the forum’s research groups and now plans further collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh.

Cardea, named after the goddess of thresholds and door pivots, began as an authorization, allocation, and auditing project, and evolved into a system that allows users access to grid resources without needing an account. NAS now has a prototype available for demonstration.

NAS scientists Warren Smith and Paul Kolano were among the presenters at a workshop on Tools for Grid Management, chaired by NAS senior scientist Judith Utley. Smith’s overview of the Control and Observation in Distributed Environments (CODE) software resulted in a software request from a European supercomputing center.

Smith is a regular contributor to the Open Grid Services Architecture document, a blueprint for grid services developers, and is currently working with several other GGF members to form a Grid Event Service working group to define standards relating to distributed event services.

Kolano also received software requests for his IPG Portability Manager, a software tool that automatically resolves issues in executing applications on grid resources. Kolano described the Portability Manager in his presentation “Automatically Establishing the Execution Environment for User Applications,” and received inquiries about further collaboration from major national supercomputing centers.

Other NAS participation at GGF8 included a full-day workshop on Grid Applications and Programming Tools organized by NAS senior scientists Tom Hinke and Bob Hood. Hinke’s co-authored paper on data mining experiments was nominated at GGF8 for inclusion in a special issue of the Journal of Grid Computing. The paper, “Enhanced Product Generation at NASA Data Centers Through Grid Technology,” by B.R. Barkstom, T.H. Hinke, S. Gavali and W. J. Seufzer is part of a collaborative project with Langley Research Center, and will be finalized during the next couple of months.

For more information on NASA’s Information Power Grid, contact Tony Lisotta at (650)604-1462, tlissota@mail.arc.nasa.gov.