Information Technology Assessment Study Full Report
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
JPL Publication 02-03 The information in this publication is summarized in the Executive Summary, JPL Publication 02-02. Information Technology Assessment Study Full Report John Peterson, Study Leader Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California V V v _J v _v_ ----4 National Aeronautics and rt=/ Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology V Pasadena, California March 2002 Tile research described in this publication was carded out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, W California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space W Administration. W Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement by the United States Government or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. An Executive Summary, JPL Publication-02-02, 0f this IT Assessment Study is published under separate cover. Copies are available through Jet Propulsion Laboratory Engineering Document Services, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Mail Station 111-29, Pasadena, CA 91109, tel. 818-354-6222. IT Assessment Study ExecufiveSummary published separately as JPL Publication 02-02 ES. 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 ES.20SS User Group Perspective. .............................................. :................................................ 4 ES.3 IT Provider Perspective ......................................................................................................... 7 ES.4 Concluson ............................................................................................................................ 13 m ii Information Technology Assessment Study Assessment of NASA Research and Development in Information Technology for the Office of Space Science (Phase 1) Requested by Harley Thronson Director for Technology, Space Science Enterprise Giulio Varsi Senior Technologist Participants NASA Ames Research Center National Science Foundation (NSF) Dan Clancy Gary Strong, Information Technology Research Mike Freeman Tony Gross Mike Lowry Defense and Advanced Research Projects Robert Morris V Agency (DARPA) Mike Shafto Kathy MacDonald, InformaaonTechnology Office John Ziebarth 0v_#, Dave Korsmeyer Nicola Muscettola IBM Guillaume Brat Tryg Ager, Almaden NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Susan Hoban Oracle Peter Hughes Nand Lal John Pilat, ServerTechnologies Chris Schwartz Tim Van Sant University of Southern California (USC) Jet Propulsion Laboratory Barry Boehm, Center for Software Engineering Rich Capps Jim Cutts Eric De Jong Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Rich Doyle William Scherlis, Institute for Software Research Martin Feather Jason Hyon Norm Lamarra Meemong Lee Roger Lee John Peterson Steve Prusha Ben Smith Russell Knight Jay Wyatt iii Acknowledgements Completing a major study like ITAS required the combined talents of a lot of people. I wish to thank the many individuals who contributed to this study. My appreciation comes from looking back and realizing all the individuals who made this report possible. I am very lucky. I gratefully acknowledge the participants from NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, the Defense and Advanced Research Projects Agency, IBM, Oracle, the University of Southern California, and Carnegie Mellon University for their valuable contributions to this complex task. I am especially grateful to Dan Clancy and Jim Cutts for providing vital feedback by questioning our work at every level as the study unfolded. k._. For their helpful suggestions and guidance to the team over the course of the assessment, special thanks to Harley Thronson and Giulio Varsi. Additionally, I offer thanks to Brantley Hanks for his help in ensuring the accuracy and overall quality of this report. I also appreciate the editing support provided by Ed Sewall and Tom Hamilton and the on-site workshop support provided by Carol Williams. My special gratitude and thanks belongs to Norm Lamarra - an excellent information technology researcher who is an even better friend. His combination of humor, intelligence, and curiosity is responsible for inspiring some of the more unusual insights in this report. John C. Peterson, Study Leader Jet Propulsion Laboratory iv w Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 2. Study Overview ........................ :.................................................................................. 7 v 3. IT Needs/Interests for Future OSS Missions .......................................................... 27 4. NASA Information Technology Research and Development ............................... 65 5. Non-NASA IT R&D Programs (Scope, Drivers, Role) ....................................... 161 v 6. Implementation/Infusion Issues ............................................................................ 197 V 7. Recommendations ................................................................................................... 211 V Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 227 1. Goals of the Study ............................................................................................. 229 2. Workshop Information ..................................................................................... 233 3. Mapping of Information Technologies to OSS Mission Challenges ............. 251 v.J 4. DoD 5000 Model for Science/Technology Transition .................................... 285 5. Acronyms ........................................................................................................... 291 ITAS Executive Summary ............................................................ JPL Publication 02-02 %J V V V 1. Introduction V Contents M.] V le Introduction ................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................... 3 V 1.2 Objectives ...................................................................... ............................................... 3 1.3 Study Scope ................................................................................................................... 3 V 1.4 Approach ....................................................................................................................... 4 1.5 Study Team Participants ................................................................................................ 5 1.6 Schedule ........................................................................................................................ 5 V __ J v V V v v w v v w IF w w v V v W W w v W IF v _J V W _W W W W W W w W W V W qF w W W qF 1. Introduction 1.1 Background Information Technology (IT) has great potential for both enhancing exploration capability and simultaneously reducing overall mission cost, while assisting in conveying the results of the science analysis to the research community and, increasingly, to the general public. Accordingly, NASA's Office of Space Science (OSS) requested an assessment of the degree to which IT research and development (R&D) meets the needs of future OSS missions (2006 and beyond). This study was led by JPL, which formed a team of technologists representing three Centers (JPL, ARC, and GSFC) from both the IT provider and IT customer sides. Representatives from commercial, academic and government sectors were also invited to contribute information on their IT programs and provide outside perspectives. NASA's recent reorganization of IT R&D assigned most of the agency's investment to the Office of Aerospace Technology (OAT). During FY2001, OAT spent about $134M in low- and V mid-TRL (Technology Readiness Level) R&D, with a further $66M being spent by OSS and other codes on focused IT R&D. Further shifts in the budget occurred in FY2002 to increase OAT' s share of the total IT R&D responsibility. 1.2 Objectives The objectives of this Information Technology Assessment Study (ITAS) were to repond to the w.../ following areas of inquiry posed by the Associate Administrator for OSS (as described in V Appendix 1): 1. Perform a critical assessment of NASA's planned information technology R&D and its relevance to future OSS missions 2. Identify products that industry and other government agencies can best supply or perform 3. Recommend a technology infusion strategy to make available the appropriate information technology to our missions. These three objectives proved very Challenging for the team to fulfill. 1.3 Study Scope The ITAS team restricted its review to the OSS IT needs and the Agency investment designed to address these needs, although many of the technologies reviewed are also relevant to other Enterprises. Table 1-1 summarizes the total current Agency investment in low- and mid-TRL IT R&D and estimates the portion that has the goal of meeting OSS needs. For the OAT cross- Enterprise investment, we asked the funding programs to determine the portion of their investment that is intended to directly address OSS needs, using the requirements identified by the user community. These were