Sep 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 3

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

IT Talk Jul - Sep 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 3

www.nasa.gov IT Talk Jul - Sep 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 3 In this Issue

Office of the CIO NASA Headquarters 300 E Street SW Message From Washington, D.C. 20546 3 the NASA CIO Chief Information Officer Jeff Seaton Editor & Publication Manager Eldora Valentine Graphic & Web Designer iPhone 12 and Michael Porterfield Apple Magnet Safety Copy Editor 4 Meredith Isaacs Information

IT Talk is an official publication of the DAPHNE Connects Office of the Chief Information Officer of the National Aeronautics and Satellites to Space Administration, Headquarters, 6 the Cloud Washington, D.C. It is published by the OCIO office for all NASA employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to suggest a story idea, email: Cloud Tools Power [email protected] Perseverance’s To read IT Talk online visit: www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk 8 Mission to Mars

For more info on the OCIO: v www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio v nasa.sharepoint.com/sites/cio/ (Internal NASA network only) NASA CIO Named www.nasa.gov/open/ v One of Best Bosses www.facebook.com/NASAcio 10 in Federal IT! Message from the NASA CIO

A cloud innovation implemented in the mission environment is saving NASA millions of dollars, and it’s giving scientists quicker access to their data. The cloud solution is called “DAPHNE,” which stands for Data Acquisition Processing and Handling Network Environment. This system was developed to eliminate the need for mission-specific hardware at ground stations. In this issue, we’ll learn how DAPHNE is a technological leap over existing systems. We’ll also explore how cloud tools helped power Perseverance’s mission to Mars and how they are keeping future NASA missions connected. Finally, being able to work anytime and anyplace has become our new “norm.” The NASA Office of the Chief Information Officer is working diligently to deliver the -de pendable IT capabilities that the NASA team needs to support both onsite and off- site work. We’ll look at how NASA Centers are gearing up to support a hybrid work environment as we return to more onsite work, including upgrades to our NASA conference room capabilities and low-cost devices that can add virtual meeting capabilities to smaller rooms when needed. I hope the information in this issue is helpful, and we always welcome your feedback. Jeff Seaton NASA Chief Information Officer

Supporting Return to Onsite Work with Video Teleconferencing Services Microsoft Teams Integration By Sylvester Placid, Communications Strategist, Communications Program, Marshall Space Flight Center As NASA begins planning to bring per- easily add video- and audioconferenc- tion, please contact your CP Center sonnel back to Centers with the best ing capabilities and videoconferencing Customer Service Representative. possible work experience, videocon- integration with Microsoft Teams and ferencing capability will play a larger other Agency collaboration services, role than ever before. The Commu- such as Cisco Webex. nications Program (CP) is working to Soon, everyone will be able to partici- bring more tools to conference rooms pate in a wide array of videoconfer- of all sizes by utilizing a new solu- ences from NASA conference rooms, tion to enable Video Teleconferencing offices onsite at NASA Centers, and Services (ViTS) videoconferencing with remote locations. For more informa- popular collaboration services already in use across the Agency, including Microsoft Teams. Smaller conference rooms will be able to use web camera and audio units, while medium-sized and large rooms will be able to use a new, upgraded videoconferencing bridge to enable this capability. Larger rooms will be able to integrate Microsoft Teams calls directly into videoconferences. A new USB video bar built for small rooms and huddle areas will be able to

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2021 3 iPhone 12 and Apple Magnet Safety Information By Theresa Roberts, End User Services Program Office Communications, Marshall Space Flight Center

In May, the U.S. Food and Drug What is MagSafe? These medical devices can contain sen- Administration (FDA) released safety MagSafe is a technology Apple pre- sors that respond to magnets and other information announcing that magnets viously used to create a breakaway components of the iPhone 12 and Mag- in cell phones and smart watches magnetic charging cable for the Safe accessories when in close contact. may affect pacemakers and other MacBook. The repurposed Mag- implanted medical devices. This Safe name now refers to technol- What Precautions Should I Take? follows safety guidance published ogy inside all of the iPhone 12 mod- Apple advises users to keep devices by Apple earlier this year about the els and applicable accessories. and accessories containing mag- magnets inside iPhone 12 models nets a safe distance (more than 6 and other devices and accessories. MagSafe uses a ring of magnets inches/15 centimeters apart or more built into the back of the iPhone to than 12 inches/30 centimeters apart The iPhone 12 is not currently ap- connect to accessories, like cases if wirelessly charging) away from proved to be offered as an enterprise- and chargers, which also have mag- medical devices and to consult with managed device, although a few Apple nets built inside. So, for example, a physician and the medical device devices and accessories with magnets a MagSafe charger will snap to the manufacturer for specific guidelines. are orderable from the Enterprise back of an iPhone 12 similarly to a Service Desk (ESD) catalog. Please magnet snapping to a refrigerator. If you suspect iPhone, Apple de- keep the following information in mind vices, or any MagSafe accessories if you obtain these devices or acces- These powerful magnets, as well as are interfering with your medical sories for personal use or if the iPhone other components of the iPhone 12, device, stop using your iPhone, 12 (or other devices/accessories) are emit electromagnetic fields that might device, or MagSafe accessories im- approved to be offered at a later time. interfere with medical devices, such as mediately and contact your physician implanted pacemakers and defibrillators. and medical-device manufacturer.

4 www.nasa.gov Sending Out a Survey? Here’s What You Need To Know About the Paperwork Reduction Act By Claire Little, Agency PRA Officer, NASA Headquarters

Data and information are what make ably do. But why only probably? Well, As for the “how,” there are differ- our work, well, work. But the way if you are asking fewer than 10 people ent answers depending on what you you gather that information could for information, then you are not sub- are doing. If you are sending out a trigger something called the Paper- ject to PRA. If you are asking for very survey, you just need to submit a work Reduction Act (PRA), mean- brief and simple customer feedback short form with about a two-week ing that the Office of Management or for an open-ended response to a turnaround. If you are doing anything and Budget (OMB) has to approve casual question—for example, asking else—an application, a registra- your collection mechanism be- folks to click a happy or sad face to tion form, etc.—it is a 5- to 6-month fore you start using it. But how do rate service, or a NASA social media process, so get started early! you know when this is the case, or account asking something like “What’s whom you should talk to for help? your favorite star?”—then also no The “who” is the easiest! Whether you to PRA. Finally, something that is an know for sure or just think your collec- The “when” is a little tricky. If you explicitly defined part of that person’s tion might be subject to PRA, contact are collecting information only from job, like a pilot filing a flight plan or a me, the Agency’s PRA officer. I will help civil servants, you do not need to go police officer writing a traffic citation, you figure out what you need to do and through PRA, simple as that. If you are does not need to go through PRA. Ev- help you do it. collecting from members of the pub- erything else, though? Yes…probably. lic—including contractors—you prob- It is complicated.

Communications Program Accelerates Cloud Connectivity for NASA to Drive Innovation By Sylvester Placid, Communications Strategist, Communications Program, Marshall Space Flight Center

The Communications Program (CP) is CP is introducing an innovation for help keep NASA personnel connected accelerating and enhancing connectiv- NASA’s on-premises data centers and productive. ity to cloud service providers for NASA to benefit from cloudlike functional- to keep the Agency ahead of the tran- ity. The new Data Center Networking CP is working to modernize, standard- sition from on-premises data centers to (DCN) capability enables customers ize, and upgrade NASA’s connectiv- cloud-based services for critical appli- using the Johnson Space Center (JSC) ity to additional cloud providers. This cations, including e-mail, collaboration, and Kennedy Space Center (KSC) initiative will transition current cloud and real-time chat. CP manages NASA data centers to migrate virtual servers connectivity to utilize the Equinix Cloud connectivity to NASA cloud partners between JSC and KSC seamlessly, Exchange Fabric (ECX) at independent such as Amazon Web Services, Google without the need to reconfigure the exchange facilities located throughout Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure. servers after migration. This capabil- the country, providing virtual direct Just recently, CP completed a major ity provides customers with the agility connections with hundreds of cloud upgrade to double the capacity of to easily move workloads between service providers to the NASA corpo- NASA’s primary connectivity to Micro- the two data centers quickly, increas- rate network. This will reduce the time soft 365 cloud services (Office, One- ing efficiency and reducing downtime. and cost to securely connect NASA Drive, SharePoint, Teams) and enable Workloads can also move between the to cloud providers while significantly up to 500 percent growth over the data centers to avoid disruptions from increasing computing capacity. previous throughput. weather or infrastructure outages to

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2021 5 6 www.nasa.gov DAPHNE Connects Satellites to the Cloud By Salem El-Nimri, DAPHNE Project Development Lead and Steve Sirotzky, Branch Head, Goddard Space Flight Center

How do we ensure that our rainwa- Telecommunication Networks and cols they need. When done, DAPHNE ter is clean? How do we know about Technology Branch (Code 566) and its releases those servers and has no changes in Earth’s connection to the engineers created the “Data Acquisi- more financial commitment. This has Sun? Can we thrive on another planet? tion Processing and Handling Network accelerated and helped streamline the Getting climate and planetary data Environment” (DAPHNE) system. This data capture, process, and delivery. to the scientists who analyze them is system was developed and deployed Once scientists receive the instrument what NASA does best. NASA’s goal is to eliminate the need for mission-spe- data, they can also access the full to explore and advance knowledge for cific hardware at ground stations. processing power of commercial cloud the benefit of humankind. To realize providers. Scientists can spin up thou- that, we at NASA reach up to space The system is composed of two parts: sands of servers to look for patterns in with scientific instruments to expand one piece of streamlined hardware that their measurements for mere pennies human understanding. Our probes is local to the station, and a second to the Agency. The benefits extend collect vital data and send them back “virtual” component in the cloud. The from there to interagency data, science to Earth so scientists can decode the local DAPHNE system occupies a sharing, and collaborations. universe’s mysteries. small footprint with general-purpose, easy-to-maintain hardware. When a Many cloud providers offer a suite of To receive data from satellite mis- satellite mission passes overhead, tools including Artificial Intelligence sions, NASA depends on a collection DAPHNE ingests the data and securely (AI), data mining, and other innova- of ground station antennas located all pushes the prioritized data to its coun- tions. These capabilities give NASA around the world. Because missions terpart in the cloud. Once in the cloud, scientists and their partners a rich frequently have different wireless com- all the mission-specific functionality toolbox to understand our universe. munication requirements, these ground can be executed using the full process- stations are often equipped with “mis- ing resources of our cloud partners. The DAPHNE team has deployed the sion unique” hardware to allow these system at two stations, one in Alaska, specific requirements to be met. These Removing the need for multiple gen- United States, and the other at the re- requirements can include special wire- erations of mission-specific hardware mote Arctic island of Svalbard, Norway. less modulation, handshaking to con- also significantly reduces the footprint The team will deploy two more sys- firm that data were received properly, at the ground station. It is reduced tems to other ground stations (Puntas prioritization of certain types of data, from racks of ever-growing mission- Arenas, Chile, and Wallops Island, the checking of science data for trends unique hardware to just half a rack of a Virginia, United States), with more sta- of interest, or distribution to special shared resource. In addition, DAPHNE tions to be integrated in the coming stakeholders. Having unique hardware removes the need for owning or leas- year from international partners in Asia to meet all of these needs adds cost to ing costly connections. The system and Australia. the Government. is designed to connect to the nearest cloud backbone global infrastructure The DAPHNE system is certainly An added complexity is that the major- network, benefiting from economies a technological leap over existing ity of ground stations are located at of scale to reduce the communication systems. It has contributed to millions remote places. Maintenance of unique cost significantly. This saves the Agen- of dollars of savings to the Agency. hardware requires travel and shipping cy money and positions NASA to take Its true innovation is in its ability to of parts that may support only one advantage of commercially upgraded drive new ideas. The system puts new mission. This situation reduces scal- and maintained technology. methods of collaboration and process- ability of those resources. In addition, ing within the reach of those able to the Agency has historically covered the The system also allows missions to expand human knowledge. To the cost of owning telecommunications at be more nimble. Within the cloud, science community, DAPHNE makes these remote sites. Each of these adds DAPHNE is customizable, with an ar- available computational resources that to the annual cost. chitecture that is fully data-driven and were previously difficult to navigate. scalable. Missions can spin up servers From there, the sky is the limit. Recently, a solution was developed in seconds to process the influx of data at Goddard Space Flight Center. The with the handshaking and data proto-

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2021 7 Cloud Tools Power Perseverance’s Mission to Mars Daniel Horton, End User Services Program Office Communications, Marshall Spaceflight Center

The small town of Titusville could be like any other place in Florida. With a population of just over 40,000 people, a courthouse on a town square, and a sampling of shops and restaurants nearby, it is a small city that resembles many others in our country. However, most small towns are not home to a team hard at work on projects like missions to Mars.

In early 2020, many residents of Titusville who previously had been collaborating in person at Kennedy Space Center, had been working from their homes to ensure a successful launch of the Perseverance Rover. This work to get the mission on the way to Mars took virtual team- work and the use of cloud func- was tough. Especially with a big mis- back from the Red Planet, allowing tionality to keep them connected. sion like Mars 2020,” Haddad com- everyone on Earth to witness the suc- mented. “Microsoft Teams was an cessful landing. Before landing on the Red Planet in incredible help with daily interaction.” February 2021, it took the work of “Seeing it land was inspiring,” said teams like the Safety and Mission This interaction would include the Haddad. “Having a hand in that mis- Assurance Launch Services Division file-sharing functionality provided by sion was so rewarding on so many to keep the mission to Mars on track. Teams and Office 365. Through col- levels. Not only am I able to talk to Mike Haddad is part of this team and laborating on documents in the cloud, my nieces and nephews about this has been working remotely from his the Mission Assurance Launch Servic- car-sized rover on Mars, but when home office in Titusville on Mars Per- es Team were empowered to continue you’re able to send videos to people severance and other missions. their work as if they were all physically not involved with the mission, they can in the same office. see how cool it is too.” “When it came to learning from the pandemic and how to collaborate, it “We learned a lot of lessons from talk- In the same way that files were collab- ing over e-mail, chat, or even video orated on and shared from Kennedy chat,” mentioned Haddad. The use of Space Center to other NASA Centers, these collaboration tools and cloud these image and video files would be interactivity made for an increase in shared from Mars for everyone back productivity that supported the team on Earth to enjoy. From images of the in this period. Haddad went on to rocky red surface to video of the Inge- say that “Teams benefited our daily nuity Helicopter conducting the first interaction; it took the place of normal Martian flight, these files would lead to person-to-person connection.” further appreciation and understanding of our closest planetary neighbor. The ability to continue normal operations would enable Haddad’s team “That’s a benefit to society,” to support a successful launch and added Haddad. “It makes me journey to Mars. In February, as NASA feel very appreciative and very held its breath through the “seven humbled. It also gives me inspira- minutes of terror” upon entry into the tion for future missions as well.” Martian atmosphere, another type of long-distance file sharing came into play. Video and images were beamed

8 www.nasa.gov Mission Cloud Platform (MCP)— CP Stats at Transforming the Mission a Glance Environment at NASA 2020–21 By Catie Tresslar, Project Support Specialist, Goddard Space Flight Center By Sylvester Placid, Communications Strategist, Communications Through executive orders to modern- capacity and the cost of static data Program, Marshall Space Flight Center ize national cybersecurity, the Biden centers. MCP provides the expertise During the last 15 months of mandatory administration has accelerated cloud to launch, prototype, and integrate telework, the Communications Program and zero-trust architecture adoption cloud solutions into existing and future (CP) accomplished the following: efforts. NASA is embracing the shift ground systems. from legacy data centers to cloud. • Supported a 300 percent MCP cloud engineers preconfigure increase in telework On-premise IT infrastructure is vul- cloud accounts with integrated tools • Achieved a completion status of nerable to security compromises as for security and Information Technol- 84 percent in transitioning NASA to evidenced by numerous high-profile ogy management while protecting Voice-over-Internet Protocol phones breaches, including a breach of 40 NASA data. Access to public-facing million Target credit and debit card ac- services is approved through a tightly • Completed installation of 20,000 counts, plus 70 million customer data controlled configuration management feet of upgraded optical cable records; a Home Depot breach of 56 process to mitigate risk. The MCP across 3.5 miles of protected million credit card accounts; and an model lowers barriers to cloud entry marshland for launch opera- eBay breach of 145 million customer by implementing compliance guard- tions at Wallops Flights Facility accounts. rails while supplying fully customizable • Transported more than two services to support tenant-specific terabytes of real-time telem- All of these incidents occurred in data needs. MCP delivers the power of etry data for Space Launch Sys- centers. Reliance on legacy technolo- cloud computing via centralized and tem (SLS) Green Run tests gy poses risks to space flight and sen- consolidated cloud management ideal sitive mission data. Routine operations for enterprise consumption of cloud • Improved network performance by and maintenance of legacy systems services. 90 percent for SLS manufactur- are both time-consuming and costly to ing at Michoud Assembly Facility maintain. The Mission Cloud Platform Currently supporting over 100 projects • Developed Live Town Hall service (MCP) is an innovative program oper- across seven NASA Centers, MCP in 60 days from the start of tele- ating to fill this critical mission need. supports a diverse mission portfolio, work to provide video streaming consisting of artificial intelligence (AI) for large virtual events support- MCP evolved from a Goddard Space and machine learning (ML), science, ing 250,000 total views and more Flight Center (GSFC) innovation pilot engineering, and flight projects. Key than 35,000 concurrent viewers program to address the growing inter- customers such as the Data Acquisi- est in cloud technologies and enter- tion Processing and Handling Network • Deployed 30,000 Jabber cli- prise need for secure cloud computing Environment (DAPHNE), the Conjunc- ents to provide softphone capa- services. The initial MCP platform and tion Assessment and Risk Analysis bility for remote users and team stood up in ten months, received (CARA), and the Flight Dynamics nine Agency help desks its Authority to Operate (ATO) in De- Facility (FDF) use MCP for a variety • Supported an average of more cember 2019, and has become a key of science, mission, and general-use than 6,400 Webex meetings with enabler of digital transformation and cases. more than 114,000 attendees mission modernization across NASA. totaling more than 6.9 million min- Will you be next? utes per month; increased Webex MCP is accelerating mission cloud To reach the Mission Cloud Platform Events’ participant limit to 3,000 migration and adoption throughout team, e-mail AGCY-MissionCloud@ NASA by offering a scalable and con- mail.nasa.gov. • Managed more than 150 Video solidated mission cloud service within Teleconferencing Services confer- NASA. MCP customers save time and ence room buildouts, refreshes, and money by leveraging scalable on-de- remote configurations for mission- mand resources that eliminate wasted critical facilities across NASA Centers during telework access restrictions

NASA OCIO IT Talk Jul - Sep 2021 9 NASA CIO Named One of Best Bosses in Federal IT! By Eldora Valentine, OCIO Communications Manager, NASA Headquarters

Congratulations to NASA Chief Information Officer Jeff customer experiences, achieving consistent operational Seaton for being one of the winners of the 2021 Fed- excellence, modernizing and transforming NASA Infor- Scoop Award for Best Bosses in Federal IT. FedScoop mation Technology, and adopting more digital tools. is honoring the Best Bosses in Federal IT, this year with an emphasis on celebrating the leaders in Federal You can learn more about other FedScoop Best Bosses technology who have helped guide their organizations by visiting https://www.fedscoop.com/list/fedscoop- through the continuing challenges of the COVID-19 announces-the-best-bosses-in-federal-it-2021/. pandemic. Winners were selected by their peers and colleagues Seaton says the past 16 months have been difficult through open voting that occurred over the last few IT Talk

and many people have been put to the test person- months. IT Talk Jul - Sep 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 3 ally and professionally in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis. But he says the experience has taught him how to be an even better leader. “Throughout the response to COVID-19, I have tried to take a forward- leaning approach to prioritizing the health and safety of my workforce. For me it’s important to be realistic and human in dealing with people. We are all in this together. COVID-19 has turned everyone’s life upside down. I’ve put our employees first by maximizing flex- ibilities for them to perform their NASA work while also enabling them to care for themselves and their fami- lies. I have encouraged my supervisors to provide the greatest amount of flexibility in what hours employees work., e.g., allowing them to change start/stop times or to break up their eight-hour workdays into sections to better accommodate their family needs at home.”

As a leader, Seaton says he is keeping his eyes on some key top priorities for 2021–22. They include protecting NASA’s IT infrastructure, delivering great

National Aeronautics and Space Administration S Office of the Chief Information Officer 300 E Street SW Washington, DC 20546 www.nasa.gov