The Future Role of Data Architecture in Space Exploration

Paper number

IAC-07-D1.I.08

Author

Mr. Peter Kent, United Space Alliance, United States

Year

2007

Abstract

Space exploration involves a vast network of activities spanning an array of organizations and people working in unison towards a shared vision.  They form a chain of processes, products, and data culminating in assembly, test, and checkout activities at the launch site, and the launch of missions of exploration.  Mission operations generate large sets of data that must be captured, stored and analyzed to unlock the tenants of the solar system and beyond.

The goal of countries to extend the presence of humans in exploration of the moon and beyond will require changes in the architectures employed to create, manage and use data. The terrestrial-focused data architectures in place for the past half-century must evolve to become integrated earth-space architectures that employ data to support the safety and inventiveness of the human scientists exploring space, and to return the richer set of data that will be developed by humans interacting with the elements of non-terrestrial worlds.

Future space vehicles and outposts will require data systems that go beyond the command and control driven capabilities of today’s vehicles.  They must become self-sufficient data processing centers integrated within an earth-space based network of scientists, engineers and mission operators collaborating to explore new worlds.  Space-based data processing centers must be based on data architectures that successfully resolve the paradox of autonomous self-sufficient operation in conjunction with integrated, collaborative operations, within the constraints imposed by the distances and infrastructure of space-based communications.

The key to resolving this lies in moving beyond simplistic techniques such as indexing and key words for search, retrieval and synchronization of data, to taxonomy-based classification of data and content and to taxonomy-based discovery, replication and synchronization of data and content across future earth-space data processing networks.  The power of taxonomies to drive this at a very granular, context-driven level provides the precise control needed to utilize the highly constrained resources of a space-based network to successfully achieve mission data goals.

The data architectures supporting this approach must be logically centralized, but physically distributed, with very flexible coupling between tools, techniques and data.  This flexible coupling allows tools to be created, updated, transmitted and applied independently over datasets, and allows the tools and techniques employed over the earth-space data processing network to evolve over time without resource intensive data transmission or data conversions.

Copyright © 2007 by United Space Alliance, LLC. These materials are sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Contract NAS9-20000 and Contract NNJ06VA01C. The U.S. Government retains a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in such materials to reproduce, prepare, derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the U.S. Government. All other rights are reserved by the copyright owner.

Abstract document

IAC-07-D1.I.08.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-D1.I.08.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.