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2003 NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS
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 screen seach 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.
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. Its 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.
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NEWS ARCHIVE
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