NASA has awarded funding for 20 new investigations in
information systems technology development under the Advanced
Information Systems Technology (AIST) Program.

The proposals, selected from more than 200 submissions, focus
on high-priority information technology areas: on-board
processing, space-based communications networks, mission
automation, and high-end computing technologies for modeling.
The total funding for these investigations, over a period of
three years, is approximately $19.4 million. Investigators
hail from 14 states and Washington.

Through the AIST Program, NASA invests in research and
development of new and innovative information technologies.
The research supports and enhances NASA’s Earth science
enterprise and applications objectives as part of the
agency’s mission to understand and protect our home planet.
AIST focuses on: creating mature technologies that will lead
to smaller flight systems that can be built quickly and
efficiently, since they will be less resource-intensive and
less expensive. AIST investment leads also to more efficient
ground-based processing and modeling systems that make the
use of Earth science data for the good of humankind.

The investigations selected by NASA’s Office of Earth Science
are:

  • Mohammed Atiquzzaman (University of Oklahoma, Norman,
    Okla.): Seamless Handover in Space Networks

  • Marcos Bergamo (BBN Technologies, Cambridge, Mass.):
    Multi-Satellite Virtual Private Network for Space-Based
    Applications (SpaceVPN)

  • Eric Byler (Lockheed Martin Aerospace Corporation, Palo
    Alto, Calif.): Realtime-Reconfigurable Distributed-Computing
    for Adaptive Science Operations in Satellite Formations using
    Heterogeneous CPUs and Heterogeneous Connectivity

  • Liping Di (George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.):
    Integration of OGC and Grid Technologies for Earth Science
    Modeling and Applications

  • Andrea Donnellan (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
    Pasadena, Calif.): Complexity Computational Environments:
    Data Assimilation SERVO Grid

  • Stephen Durden (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
    Calif.): An On-Board Processor for a Spaceborne Doppler
    Precipitation Radar

  • Andrew Gray (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
    Calif.): Reconfigurable Protocol Chip for Satellite Networks

  • Jeffery Herath (NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton,
    Va.): Radiation Tolerant Intelligent Memory Stack (RTIMS)

  • James Joseph (Spectrum Astro, Gilbert, Ariz.): TCP/IP
    Router Board (TRB) with Ethernet Interfaces

  • Stephan Kolitz (Charles Stark Draper Laboratory,
    Cambridge, Mass.): Mission Automation for “A Train”
    Correlative Measurements Using the Earth Phenomena Observing
    Systems

  • Jacqueline LeMoigne (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
    Greenbelt, Md.): A Reconfigurable Computing Environment for
    On-Board Data Compression and Cloud Reduction

  • Mike Lin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
    Md.): 10/100 Mb/sec Flight Ready Ethernet Hardware

  • Yunling Lou (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
    Calif.): On-Board Processor for Direct Distribution of Change
    Detection Data Products

  • Daniel Mandl (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
    Greenbelt, Md.): Hybrid Ground Phased Array Prototype for Low
    Earth Orbiting Satellite Communications

  • Robert Morris (NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field,
    Calif.): Planning and Scheduling of Coordinated Science
    Observations

  • Kara Nance (University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska):
    Intelligent Dataset Identification, Assimilation, Collection
    and Transformation System

  • Christa Peters-Lidard (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
    Greenbelt, Md.): Coupling High Resolution Earth System Models
    Using Advanced Computational Technologies

  • Russell Rew (University Corporation for Atmospheric
    Research/National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder,
    Colo.): Merging the NetCDF and HDF5 Libraries to Achieve
    Gains in Performance and Interoperability

  • Brian Schott (University of Southern California,
    Arlington, Va.): Reconfigurable Hardware in Orbit

  • Peter Thornton (National Center for Atmospheric Research
    Boulder, Colo.): Implementing an Efficient Supercomputer-
    Based Grid Compute Engine for End-to-end Operation of a High-
    Resolution, High Data-Volume Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Model

  • Daniel Weigand, (ITT, Reston, Va.): RF Agile Low-Power
    Transceiver (LPT) Technology for future Space-Based
    Communications Networks