National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Issue 1 May 2010

this issue IT Talk Open Government p.1 Gamma Rays & Cell Phones p.2 Engineering Digital Design p.3 Federal 100 Honoree p.4

Managing Editor: John Hopkins

NASA Highlights Open Highlights of NASA’s Government Activities Open Government Activities Deborah Diaz named Source: Article by Robbie Schingler, Special as NASA Deputy Chief Liaison for Open Government Flagship Initiatives Information Officer Whether NASA is using social networks to allow stu- Three “Flagship” initiatives NASA Chief Information dents to interact directly with astronauts, or creating at NASA will take Open Gov- Officer (CIO) Linda Cureton a Platform to give unprecedented ernment to a new level: today announced Debo- access to scientific data, NASA has embraced Open rah Diaz as the new NASA Government. These and other activities are detailed • Policy: NASA is working Deputy Chief Information in NASA’s Open Government Plan, available to the to make open source soft- Officer. Ms. Cureton said, public at www..gov/open/plan. ware development ( opensource.arc.nasa.gov ) more “I’m delighted that we are collaborative at NASA to benefit both the Agency and filling this position with a The White House issued the Open Government Direc- the public. seasoned, hands-on techni- tive calling on Executive Branch agencies to become • Technology: NASA Nebula ( nebula.nasa.gov ), as cal leader who can immedi- more open, accountable, and centered on the principles the world’s first open-source cloud computing plat- ately and seamlessly assist of transparency, collaboration, and participation (www. form, offers an easier way for NASA scientists and with implementing strategic whitehouse.gov/open). April 7 was the deadline for researchers to share large, complex data sets with changes and rebuilding the Federal Agencies to release their plans. external partners and the public. Office of the CIO.” • Culture: The creation of a new NASA Participatory NASA is expanding transparency, participation, and Exploration Office will infuse more public participa- Ms. Diaz joined the NASA collaboration and creating a new level of openness and tion into NASA’s mission. Office of the CIO (OCIO) in accountability. NASA is focusing on embedding open December as Associate CIO government into three specific aspects of operations— Unique to NASA: for Architecture and Infra- policy, technology, and culture. structure and Director of the • By engaging the public in February and March of this Information Technology In- year, NASA received 420 ideas from 280 different au- tegration Program (I3P), the thors through the online Citizen Engagement Tool (more new IT infrastructure pro- than any other Agency). gram created to consolidate My Administration is committed to creating an • NASA has given the public live access to its missions the $4.3 billion of Agency’s through NASA TV. IT and data services. As an unprecedented level of openness in Govern- • Education outreach includes programs where students experienced information “ interact with astronauts and take controls of space technology executive, she ment. We will work together to ensure the instruments remotely. is recognized as a top agent • NASA’s prize program, Centennial Challenge, has of change who has provided public trust and establish a system of trans- engaged inventors from all over the country to suc- innovative, business solu- cessfully build prototypes of technology for space. tions and developed strong parency, public participation, and collabora- partnerships between indus- NASA’s founding legislation in 1958 instructed NASA to try and government. Prior to tion. Openness will strengthen our democracy “…provide for the widest practicable and appropriate NASA, as the Chief Informa- dissemination of information….” The principles of Open tion Officer for Department and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government have been embedded in NASA operations of Homeland Security’s for 50 plus years. Science and Technology Government. Directorate, she developed NASA invites the public to comment on the plan and and implemented $1 billion —PRESIDENT OBAMA, 01/21/09 have input into the implementation of Open Government of high-profile, ground- ” initiatives. r (continued on page 2) (DCIO Diaz continued from page 1) breaking scientific programs and IT infrastructure. As she served to provide new and effective ways to fight the war on terrorism, she also served as the senior advisor on IT interoperability, biometrics, geospatial, and wireless technologies. As Deputy CIO at the U.S. Pat- Gamma-Rays and Cell Phones ent and Trademark Office, Source: Article by Melissa Gibby, Jacobs ESTS Group and she helped transform USP- GBM Operations Scientist, Science and Mission Systems Office TO electronic commerce and managed complex IT initiatives to modernize business process and data How are the most energetic on-board Fermi locate a gamma-ray and the other becomes secondary exchange systems. During explosions in the universe and an burst. There is a requirement that again. Each real-time system sends Ms. Diaz’s tenure as Deputy ordinary cell phone connected states that the time from the detection state-of-health data to a third system Associate Administrator of within MSFC’s operations center for of a burst to the receipt of the notice that alerts the GBM operations man- Citizen Services at General Fermi, NASA’s newest gamma-ray by the scientists should be no longer ager—by cell phone, of course—when Services Agency, she cre- observatory? When the Gamma-ray than seven seconds. either system has an element that is ated the government’s first Burst Monitor (GBM) onboard Fermi not functioning for some reason. The electronic government-wide detects an explosion, ground sys- The main reason for such a short laten- statusing system also sends an alert citizen portal and shep- tems are alerted, data is sent to the cy requirement is so that the worldwide to the operations manager when the herded many public-private Fermi Mission Operations Center at ground based telescopes can retrain system is healthy again. partnerships from concept Goddard Space Flight Center, and their telescopes to the reported loca- to delivery. She has pro- a cell phone text message is sent tion in hopes of catching a glimpse of The real-time system also refines vided executive leadership to the scientist on duty, either at the optical afterglows from the stellar the localization for the gamma-ray to the President’s Manage- MSFC or at the Max Planck Institute explosion. The code for much of the burst. Since the on-ground computed ment Council and was the in Germany, so he or she can start real-time system uses TCP/IP sockets, localization does not have to meet the pioneer creating many of analyzing the newest data. Al- sending data directly from a process seven-second latency requirement the first e-Government though the cell phone is a very low- on one computer to a process waiting of the on-board localizations and we initiatives such as USA. tech solution, it allows the scientist for the data on another. have more computing resources on gov (FirstGov) and USA on duty to have the freedom to ground, the refined locations should be Services. Diaz also helped venture away from his or her office. Since the real-time system for Fermi is more accurate than those obtained on- blaze a trail to sub-Saharan It is also very cool when you receive required to be functional at all times, board. These refined coordinates for Africa and Asia where she such a notice to be able to tell the system is duplicated, one at MSFC the burst are then sent to the Gamma- used her background in in- those around you that you are one and the other at GSFC. A keep-alive Ray Coordinates Network for transmit- ternational business to help of the few people in the world who signal between the two systems con- tal to the scientists worldwide. forge private-sector devel- know about a huge explosion that trols which one of them functions in opment, as an international happened millions of years ago. the primary mode and which functions The GBM operations center also consultant and with the U.S. as a secondary system. If the primary has a statusing Web site used for Agency for International The real-time system for the Fermi system has a failure in a code seg- monitoring the real-time system. This Development. r mission is an interconnected series ment, the other system will take over includes the list of the gamma-ray of computers and processes that as the primary system. When the origi- triggers that have been received in receive, process, and notify scien- nal primary sys¬tem is healthy again, it the last two weeks along with infor- tists worldwide when the detectors regains control as the primary machine mation about those triggers. Included in that information is the summary of the notices sent out to the world via NOMAD Customer Delete and Recreate Meetings Set Calendar Sharing and the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network Once a Year Delegate Permissions Properly at GSFC, the times that each of the Advocacy packets was received (both on the Council (CAC) Each time a recurring meeting series Use Sharing whenever possible primary and secondary systems), is Here to or instance is edited (people added, instead of Delegates. With Sharing and a report of the missing packets Help removed, times updated, description you can allow others to view your received both in real time and in the updated, date changed) the informa- calendar or place items directly on data received later from the regular tion is recorded in the meeting itself. your calendar. If you set your default data downlinks. The NOMAD There is a limit of 256 edits per calendar permissions to Reviewer CAC’s recurring meeting and once the (or Editor), then all NOMAD users Although the use of cell phones in objective is limit is reached errors can occur. will be able to view (or write to) your a real-time system is not unique to to facilitate and enhance the For example, meeting requests may calendar. The only time you should Fermi, it has given the Fermi scientists customer experience perspec- not include response buttons for grant Delegate permissions is when reasons to look forward to hearing tive through all NOMAD project recipients to “accept” or “decline” you need someone to accept meet- their cell phones ring. They always and operational phases. With requests. For this reason, ing invitations on your behalf from hope that the next time their phone that in mind, CAC recommends recommends not making recurring their email inbox. Microsoft specifies rings it is one of the largest explosions two calendaring tips that will meetings last longer than one year as that you should have two or less, but ever detected texting them. r help increase your performance. a general rule. no more than four delegates. r

Making IT Stellar at NASA Information Technology in the Spotlight: MSFC Engineering Digital Design Environment

Source: Article by Patrick McDuffee Engineering Solutions Architect

Rebekah Reed Named Deputy CIO at JSC

In February 2010, Dr. Reed During the past two decades, many agement was named Deputy CIO in industry have shared a goal infrastruc- and Deputy Director of the to implement a true art-to-part The ture. The Information Resources capability that creates a robust and current MSFC DDMS Directorate at the NASA seamless digital environ¬ment for drawing- infrastructure Johnson Space Center. design, analysis, and fabrication based design is built around of products. Several of the major control environment the Windchill Dr. Reed joined NASA in aerospace and defense companies requires many labor- product suite to 2000 as an International are now beginning to realize that intensive manual steps that create a digital design Relations Officer in the goal and have demonstrated suc- will be eliminated in a model- environment for tighter Office of External Relations cess in developing design-to-man- based design environment. Today, control and collaboration at NASA Headquarters, ufacturing systems without having design organizations create model that enables electronic delivery, where she was a member to rely on development of labor- concepts that evolve into detailed de- automated approval routings, and of the Multilateral Partner intensive drawings or physical signs when iterated with subspecialty capabilities for redline markup of Program Team and man- mockups. These companies have groups (stress, materials, manufactur- designs. Today, MSFC’s DDMS envi- aged international relations integrated their digital Computer- ing, quality) that many times require ronment has deployed informal and for NASA’s human space Aided Design (CAD), Computer- remodeling to support their CAE ana- formal change management capabili- flight programs. Since Aided Engineering (CAE), and lytical tools. Once the design is ma- ties for documents and CAD models that time, she has served Computer-Aided Manufacturing ture, drawings are generated to estab- tied to a product structure while in a series of progressively (CAM) environments to streamline lish design baselines for configuration maintaining secure access and trans- more responsible positions, their processes, while improving control. However, use of a drawing mission of sensitive data. A closely including Senior Policy product quality and performance. requires downstream manufacturing to related MSFC initiative, Digital Design Analyst and Team Lead Results from this transition consis- regenerate models that can electroni- to Manufacturing (DDTM), looks to for Policy and Plans in the tently show a 50-percent or more cally feed the manufacturing tools. As extend the DDMS design environment Space Operations Mission reduction in design cycle time and a result, numerous engineering orders to the manufacturing environment in Directorate. She joined the the number of design changes. (EOs) or design changes are gener- efforts to provide support across the Johnson Space Center in ated due to design flaws, machining complete project life cycle. 2003 as Special Assistant Most projects across NASA still use mishaps, and errors introduced from for Policy and Strategy to a drawing-based design control remodeling and translation activities. The enhanced capabilities of DDTM the Director, Space Life Sci- environment that may utilize CAD These EOs involve manual processes will result in a significant cost sav- ences. The following year, modeling tools and CAE analysis with forms hand delivered through the ings over the life of programs by she moved to the Space capabilities but rely primarily on approval cycle and ultimately back to minimizing manufacturing set-up Shuttle Program as Special two-dimensional drawings and manufacturing after remodeling. All of time, reducing engineering changes Assistant to the Space manual processes for design control. these processes will be improved by during development, limiting physical Shuttle Program, where she During the past few years, MSFC implementing the model-based en- mockup time, and lowering product supported the Return to management has taken strategic vironment that allows manufacturing maintainability costs. Through the use Flight Planning Team. steps to begin transitioning from this engineers to quickly evaluate designs of simulation technology, the physical drawing-based environment toward early for producibility and operations hardware that would be manufactured In 2008, she was named a model-based design environment support before the design is final- would be several iterations ahead Manager, Space Shuttle that centers on the three-dimensional ized and placed under configuration of what would have been deployed Management Integration CAD model as the primary design control. Once physical infrastructure is with physical mockups and allow and Planning Office, where control object, which is fully anno- manufactured or deployed, flexibility for changes in the virtual environ- she had responsibility for the tated with all dimensions and notes begins to decrease rapidly and results ment before committing to physical strategic elements of Shuttle historically found on drawings. Ad- in significant cost for future design infrastructure. transition; Shuttle policy, ditionally, manual processes are being changes. planning, and strategic automated through new capabilities Hopefully, now when you hear about communications; change like Product Life-Cycle Management During the last several years, MSFC changes to your design environ- management; configuration (PLM) information systems that are has invested in the Design and Data ment you can begin to understand management; and Shuttle’s being implemented to digitally man- Management System (DDMS) as our how it supports the broader Center information technology. age all aspects of a product from ini- PLM system, and it forms the back- and Agency strategic vision and the tial concept to its eventual retirement. bone for an engineering data man- potential payoff for NASA. r (continued on page 4) (JSC DCIO Reed continued determining how the federal govern- Mr. Kemp is an entrepreneurial execu- from page 1) Chris Kemp is Federal 100 ment acquires, develops and man- tive with a passion for igniting innova- ages IT, his steadfast improvement in tion in high-tech organizations, with Dr. Reed began her federal Honoree delivery of government services to the experience starting, funding, building, service in 1996 at the De- Congratulations public, his superlative advancements and selling technology businesses. partment of Agriculture, to Chris C. Kemp in the effectiveness of government serving in the Natural for being desig- employees’ accomplishment of their As Chief Information Officer at NASA Resources Conservation nated as one of missions, in addition to his success- in , Service and the Foreign the esteemed 2010 Federal 100. When ful execution of NASA projects are a Mr. Kemp helped forge partnerships Agricultural Service, where the award was presented, Mr. Kemp few among the many reasons that Mr. with and Microsoft and is she was a member of U.S. was the Chief Information Officer at Kemp was chosen for this award. responsible for NASA’s Nebula Cloud delegations to the United Ames Research Center. Currently, he Computing Platform. Prior to joining Nations Food and Agricul- is Chief Technology Officer for Infor- Federal Computer Week Magazine pre- NASA, Mr. Kemp helped to create the ture Organization and the mation Technology (CTO-IT), reporting sented the Federal 100 Awards at gala third largest online community Class- United Nations Committee to NASA CIO Linda Cureton. in Washington, DC on March 22, 2010. mates.com, leading web-based vaca- on Sustainable Develop- tion rental platform Escapia, and the ment and crafted the United The Federal 100 Award recognizes first online grocery shopping platform States’ first interagency individuals in government and industry for Kroger, one of America’s largest roadmap for global food se- making significant contributions to grocery store chains. curity. She holds Doctorate federal information technology. and Masters Degrees from Mr. Kemp, 32, began his career at the Georgetown University, Mr. Kemp was chosen to receive this The other 99 formidable Federal 100 age of 15 working at an Apple Com- and a Bachelors Degree in award by a panel of high-ranking honorees include Vivek Kundra (OMB), puter store. While studying computer History from the University government and industry leaders in Craig Newmark (Craigslist), David Wil- engineering in college, Kemp took an of San Francisco. She has recognition of his passion, risk-taking, liams (IRS), Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander internship at Silicon Graphics Com- completed two-thirds of spirit and positive impact toward (NSA), Capt. Danelle Barrett (Dept of puter Systems. Kemp founded Netran, her J.D. at the University of progressive transformation of federal Navy), Shawn Donovan (HUD), Bajinder a company that launched the online Houston Law Center, where information technology. Paul (US Dept of Treasury), Sonny grocery shopping service for Kroger. she is a member of the Bhagowalia (US Dept of the Interior), Houston Law Review and Mr. Kemp’s successful efforts in affect- Jeffrey Levy (EPA), and Holly Ridgeway In 1997, Macmillan published Kemp’s the nationally-ranked Moot ing change, progress and efficiency in (Justice Department). book Web Programming with Perl 5. r Court Team. r

Making IT Stellar at NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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