NASA Launches New IT R&D Programs

NASA has awarded $19.4 million in funding for 20 new IT research and development programs ranging from a multi-satellite virtual private network for space-based applications (SpaceVPN) to a reconfigurable protocol chip for satellite networks. The projects, selected from more than 200 submissions, focus on NASA's high-priority information technology areas on-board processing, space-based communications networks, mission automation, and high-end computing technologies for modeling. The projects were funded through NASA's Advanced Information Systems Technology (AIST) program, which invests in research and development of new information technologies. The research is designed to support and enhance NASA's Earth science enterprise and applications objectives. AIST focuses on creating mature technologies that will lead to smaller flight systems that can be built quickly and efficiently, since they will be less resource-intensive and less expensive. According to NASA, AIST investment leads also to "more efficient ground-based processing and modeling systems that make the use of Earth science data for the good of humankind."