Information Technology
Ames is the home of NASA's large research and development divisions in Advanced Supercomputing, Human Factors, and Artificial Intelligence ( Intelligent Systems). These Research & Development organizations support NASA's Exploration efforts, as well as the continued operations of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, and the space science and Aeronautics work across NASA. The center also runs and maintains the E Root nameserver of the DNS System.
The Intelligent Systems Division is NASA's leading R&D Division developing advanced intelligent software and systems for all of NASA Mission Directorates. It provides software expertise for Aeronautics, Space Science Missions, Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and the new crewed Exploration Missions (CEV, and Ares). The first AI in space (Deep Space 1) was developed from Code TI, as is the MAPGEN software that daily plans the activities for the Mars Exploration Rovers, the same core reasoner is used for Ensemble to operate Phoenix Lander, and the planning system for the International Space Station's Solar Arrays. Integrated System Health Management for the International Space Station's control moment gyroscopes, collaborative systems with semantic search tools, and robust software engineering round out the scope of Code TI's work.
The Human Systems Integration Division "advances human-centered design and operations of complex aerospace systems through analysis, experimentation, and modeling of human performance and human-automation interaction to make dramatic improvements in safety, efficiency and mission success". For decades, the Human Systems Integration Division has been on the leading edge of human-centered aerospace research. The Division is home to over 100 researchers, contractors and administrative staff.
Ames operates one of the world′s fastest supercomputers, Pleiades, which will be further enhanced and is scheduled to reach 10 petaflops of processing power by 2012.
In September 2009, Ames launched NEBULA as a fast and powerful Cloud Computing Platform to handle NASA's massive data sets that complied with security requirements. This innovative pilot uses open-source components, complies with FISMA and can scale to Government-sized demands while being extremely energy efficient.
Read more about this topic: Ames Research Center
Famous quotes containing the words information and/or technology:
“I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing—it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.”
—Mary Wortley, Lady Montagu (1689–1762)
“Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power ... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)