NASA officials said this week that its Ames Research Center will support the agency's Vision for Space Exploration program in several key areas, including software, mission operations and thermal protection for the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle, NASA's new spaceship.
Earlier this week, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced several reorganizations under Constellation and assignments of responsibilities to each of the agency's 10 centers.
Ames will take the lead for development of thermal protection systems and information technology for the exploration effort, collectively known as the Constellation Program.
This responsibility includes developing the heat shield and aeroshell for the CEV. In addition, responsibilities for information technology and computing include a focus on collaborative environments for exploration, as well as the development of cost-effective software that will play a role in operations for exploration.
Ames also will support the Lunar Precursor and Robotic Program by establishing a new lunar projects office to develop small robotic spacecraft for exploration. The center will continue to lead in the development of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.
Additional computer-related work assigned to NASA Ames includes several components of the Crew Launch Vehicle, used to launch the CEV into space. This includes development of integrated systems health monitoring and analysis for the CLV, validation and verification of fault-detection software, and computational fluid dynamics analysis for risk assessment and abort scenarios.
In the mission operations area, Ames will provide computer tools for flight controllers and develop new software applications for the Constellation training program. The research center will design, develop, test and evaluate multi-center command and control software systems. Ames also will develop collaborative environment software to support project planning, management and documentation systems.
NASA also has assigned Ames to develop problem-reporting, corrective-action and safety-and-mission-assurance-information systems for the program. Ames will provide program support in systems engineering and integration of human factors and human rating systems; flight performance; thermal and environmental control and life support; command, control, communications and information; extravehicular activity systems, and ground/mission operations systems integration groups.
"I am delighted that Ames is managing development of the CEV's heat shield and aeroshell for the new spacecraft and will lead the effort to develop the essential information technology for the exploration effort that will take us back to the Moon," said Simon "Pete" Worden, Ames director. "Our history of innovation and our prime location in Silicon Valley will enhance our ability to deliver the cutting-edge technology NASA needs to implement the Vision for Space Exploration."
