Rugged Data Storage

Our Resource Page for this month kind of wanders around the galaxy touching on miniature display systems, virtual reality, the planetary data system archives, antigravity, satellite images, and our main feature on rugged data storage.

In the tradition of April Fools, I thought I'd do a Resource Page about something off-the-wall like Electrogravitational Mechanics [1], but alas, Steve said , I had to keep with more practical subjects.

Because I need to stay focused on practical subjects, I will skip the design of my flying saucer and assume for the moment that I have a working scale model of one in my hand. What would I do with it? I always wanted to take aerial pictures of the areas around my home and other places.

This means I need a place to store the images on my "Airframe," and something to do with it once I've got it, like Virtual Reality.

Ampex Corporation acquired MicroNet Technology as a wholly-owned subsidiary in July, 1998. A pioneer in disk array storage technology, MicroNet products include disk arrays for the Macintosh, Windows, and Unix platforms. MicroNet is an innovative storage manufacturer for a wide variety of users, from individuals requiring high-performance storage to medium-sized companies demanding capacities as high as a terabyte of on-line, high-availability RAID data storage.

Ciprico disk arrays offer a wide range of storage capacities. They are available with either four or eight data drives and offer a variety of capacity options, from a few gigabytes up to terabytes of storage. This flexibility makes it easy to choose a Ciprico disk array solution that fits your application.

Ciprico's RAID disk arrays offer continuous operation with hot swap disk drives and power supplies. They remain operational even with a drive or power supply failure, at full speed. Failed disk drives or power supplies are hot swapped with replacements, requiring no shut down of the disk array. In addition, you can continue to capture and process images with no decrease in performance.

General Dynamics Information Systems makes everything from the Integrated Spacecraft Computer (ISC) to THE WEARABLE Computer. Also, several types of Mass Storage and other interesting products, such as their GLMX System which provides an end-to-end Model Supported Exploitation Environment.The MSEE is the tool needed to ingest and manipulate images and to construct 3-D models of sites directly from image sources, and the applications that assist users in performing relevant tasks using those 3-D site models.

Memtech designs and manufactures nonvolatile, solid-state flash drives for the industrial, military, and portable markets. They not only provide standard off- the-shelf solutions, but can create semi-custom flash drives based on their standard product in a matter of weeks.

They also supply and repair Bubble Memory components and boards. Anyone remember those?

Mountain Optech Inc's rugged products include removable nonvolatile solid- state, magnetic hard drives, CD-ROM drives, 3.5" and 5.25" rewritable optical drives, and 4-mm DAT and 8-mm tape.

SanDisk Corporation provides customers with the highest performance flash storage solutions at the lowest price possible.

SEAKR Engineering is the world's leading supplier of spacecraft solid-state memory systems. Founded in 1982 to provide solid-state alternatives for failure-prone mechanical systems, the company has provided the international space community with a string of 21 successful on-orbit memory systems supporting missions ranging from low Earth orbit to interplanetary. Using state-of-the-art stacked memory devices or multi-chipmodules, space systems with up to 600 GB supporting GHz data rates are being built. The company recently expanded its product line to include memory systems for avionics applications and Digital Signal Processing boards for onboard spacecraft data reduction and processing.

Storage Concepts products address a broad spectrum of application requirements in the high-performance, high-availability, mass-storage markets by offering a complete family of storage solutions and servers. Based on Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) technology, Storage Concepts' subsystems support an array of computing applications. Storage Concepts' products satisfy real-time image processing, super/near-supercomputing, specialized government/military applications, as well as mass storage and high- availability requirements for general purpose data processing and file server applications. Currently, Storage Concepts' products are being used for interactive media storage for the new emerging Interactive Television and Video-on-Demand markets.

TEAC America Inc. has several data storage products, as well as Airborne Video Recorders, and other products.

Quantum Rushmore Ultra Solid State Disks come in standard form-factor packages and behave like standard disk drives. An SSD stores data on high-density arrays of high-speed DRAM memory chips and is not a magnetic disk. These SSDs achieve access times 100–200 times faster than conventional disk drives. The sustained transfer rate is more than 30 MBps with I/O ratesgreater than 9000 I/Os per second.

Vanguard Rugged Storage designs and manufactures ruggedized COTS (commercial off- the- shelf) mass storage devices for military, aerospace, and other computer systems that must operate in harsh environments.

Their product line currently includes rugged hard drives, rugged magneto-optical drives, rugged tape drives, rugged solid-state, rugged CD-ROM, and rugged DVD drives.

"The platforms for satellite or launch control systems have evolved from large, expensive computer mainframes to smaller mini-computers and to even smaller, less expensive personal computers and laptops. What will the next step be? How about systems that are small enough to fit in one's pockets and cheap enough that every scientist or engineer can have one? The goal is to explore these possibilities, design, and prototype such a system. We believe the next generation ground systems will include hand-held or pocket-sized devices, communicating via wireless networks, aided by a personal visualization system. They intend to use the latest off-the-shelf-hardware devices and, for the first time, prototype their use for satellite or launch system command and control." Real-Time Software Engineering Branch NASA Code 584 Goddard Space Flight Center.

MicroOptical's wearable computer display systems, including the Integrated Eyeglass Display and the ClipOn Display.

The Planetary Data System (PDS) archives and distributes digital data from past and present NASA planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements. The PDS is sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science to ensure the long-term usability of data, to stimulate research, to facilitate data access, and to support correlative analysis.

PDS NASAView is a Planetary Data System image display tool that runs on Sun/Unix/Motif, Windows/NT/95, and PowerMac platforms with a common look-and-feel Graphical User Interface (GUI). The current release, Version 1.1.2, can access and display PDS labeled image products from the Galileo, Magellan, Viking, Voyager, International Halley Watch, and Clementine missions.

Near real-time images from GOES 8 Satellite for both East and West Coasts are available.

Space Environment Center provides space weather alerts and warnings to the nation and world for disturbances that can affect people and equipment working in space and on Earth.

Geomagnetic storms are a natural hazard, like hurricanes and tsunamis, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Environment Center (SEC) forecasts for the public's benefit. Severe geomagnetic storms cause communications problems, abruptly increase drag on spacecraft, and can cause electric utility blackouts over a wide area. The location of ACE at the L1 libration point between the earth and the sun enable ACE to give about a one hour advance warning of impending geomagnetic activity.

Issac Newton, in his "thought experiment," hypothesized that by placing a cannon at the top of a tall mountain and firing a cannonball at a high enough velocity, the cannonball could be made to orbit the Earth.

Gravity is such an accepted part of our lives that we rarely think about it, even though it affects everything we do. Any time we drop or throw something and watch it fall to the ground, we see gravity in action. Although gravity is a universal force, there are times when it is not desirable to conduct scientific research under its full influence. In these cases, scientists perform their experiments in microgravity— a condition in which the effects of gravity are greatly reduced, sometimes described as "weightlessness."

A microgravity environment gives researchers a unique opportunity to study the fundamental states of matter (solids, liquids, and gases) and the forces that affect them. In microgravity, researchers can isolate and study the influence of gravity on physical processes, as well as phenomena that are normally masked by gravity, and thus difficult, to study on Earth.

Earth and Space
Data Computing
Division (ESDCD)
Code 930
Earth Sciences Directorate

"Our planet is best studied in a truly three-dimensional medium madepossible by our supercomputers, high-speednetworks,scientificvisualizationtechniques, and information management tools."
Dr. Milton Halem, Chief

This is an interactive and intuitive web-based display of real-time satellite imagery from around the globe. This site is slow and requires a Java capable browser. However, it is worth the time it takes.

The Lunar Prospector Mission, managed and controlled through NASA's Ames Research Center, is the focus of an exciting new Space Education program called Moonlink. This education program is designed for middle and high school students and gives them the opportunity to become actively involved in the mission.

Clementine—(Multispectral Images from the Moon).
MSTI3 Satellite– an atmospheric background data collection satellite.
STARDUST.
NEMO–Navy Earth Map Observer Satellite , a hyperspectral remote sensing satellite

STARDUST is a comet sample return mission, which will also returninterstellar dust grains. These samples will be returned to Earth for analysis. A mass spectrometer derived from instruments flown on Giotto and Vega Halley missions will also be included on the payload to provide both complementary and corroborative data to the sample return results. For the comet Wild 2 encounter, the objective is to recover more than 1000, particles larger than 15 microns in diameter, as well as volatile molecules on the same capture medium. The sample return objective for fresh interstellar grains is to collect more than over 100 particles in the 0.1 micron to 1 micron size range. They will be collected in a manner designed to preserve, at minimum, the elemental and isotopic composition for major elements in individual submicron particles.You can track the mission live daily.

ORBIMAGE is dedicated to providing low-cost, state-of-the-art satellite-based imaging products and services to customers around the world. Their family of Earth-imaging satellites is transforming the way people around the world access and use land, sea, and atmospheric information.

The Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) is a part of the Global Hydrology and Climate Center (GHCC), located in Huntsville, Alabama. The GHRC provides data ingest, archive, and distribution services for the GHCC.

The GHRC supports product generation, archive, and distribution of research quality and operational data sets for the TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) data products. The GHRC also supports global tropospheric and stratospheric temperatures derived from the Microwave Sounding Unit, global tropospheric water vapor derived from the Special Sensor Microwave Temperature Sounder (SSM/T2), and aircraft passive microwave data collected during field experiments using the Advanced Microwave Precipitation Radiometer (AMPR).

Although their data holdings are primarily used by researchers investigating facets of the hydrologic cycle,the center welcomes requests from researchers in all disciplines, K12 educators, students, and others who desire data and information from the system.

Space Calendar covers space-related activities and anniversaries for the coming year. Included are more than 800 links to related home pages.

AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) is an optical ground-based aerosol monitoring network and data archive supported by NASA's Earth Observing System and expanded by federation with many other institutions. The network hardware consists of identical automatic sun-sky scanning spectral radiometers owned by national agencies and universities. Data from this collaboration provides globally distributed near real-time observations of aerosol spectral optical depths, aerosol size distributions, and precipitable water in diverse aerosol regimes.

This is a collection of NASA Airborne Oceanographic LIDAR (AOL3) fluorosensing information. This area is currently for the use of researchers and others who are interested in the science and technology of emotesensing. Any data presented here should be considered a preliminary data product.

The SRA is a raster- scanning, airborne downlooking, pulsed radar operating at 36 GHz. As currently configured, it can scan up to 10 rasters per second. Each raster consists of 64 range and return power measurements. The beam width is 1° , and the 64 pixels are spaced 0.7° apart providing a total scan width of 44.8° or 22.4° either side of nadir. The spacing between scan lines is driven by the aircraft ground speed. At a nominal speed of 250 knots and at an altitude of 5000', 10 scans per second, the SRA scan width is approximately 80 percent of the altitude, or 4000' wide at 5000' altitude. The rasters are spaced 12.6 meters (41.6') apart, and the points within the rasters are approximately 62.5' apart.

The SRA range measurements have a demonstrated RMS noise level of approximately 10m when ranging to a static target during ground testing.

The Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM-II) is a scanning LIDAR altimeter, which, when combined with the differential Global Positioning System (GPS) is capable of producing a high resolution topographic map. A brief description of the sensor is provided along with details of the operating characteristics.

Perhaps I'm confused, but it seems there are two Earth Sciences Directorates. Clicking on the link gets you one, and clicking on the graphic gets you the other.

A number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) presently exist, both domestically and internationally. Their payload weight carrying capability, accommodations (volume, environment), mission profile (altitude, range, duration), and command, control, and data acquisition capabilities vary significantly. Routine civil access to these various UAV assets is in an embryonic state and is only just now emerging.

A buildup of domestic UAV configurations, promoted by the Department of Defense (DOD), occurred in the late ’80s, and well into the ’90s. This occurred as the DOD sought UAVs to satisfy their mission unique surveillance requirements in a Close Range, Short Range, or Endurance category of vehicle. Close Range was defined to be within 50 kilometers, Short Range was defined as within 200, and Endurance as anything beyond. With the advent of newer technology and with the demonstrated performance of the UAVs provided to the DOD by industry, the Close and Short Range categories have since been combined, and a later separate Shipboard category has been incorporated with them. The current classes or combination of these types of vehicles are called the Tactical UAV, followed by the Endurance category.

Solar Radiation Instrumentation—The Rotating Shadow Band (RSB), which measures the direct and diffuse beam of solar radiation within broad band wavelength regions, is actively deployed across the country to measure radiation for the Department of Energy.

A closeup of the sensor array showing the open, silicon channel (center) and the six narrowband filters (surrounding).

"Do We Need A Cosmocentric Ethic?" Paper for the 1997 International Astronautical Federation (IAF) Congress by Mark Lupisella and John Logsdon (Director of the George Washington University Space Policy Institute), available in MSWord (110K).

Reference 1:

Thomas Townsend Brown, an American physicist, was a leader in developing theories concerning the link between electromagnetic and gravitational fields theorized by Dr. Albert Einstein. He advanced from theory to application with the development of solid and disc-shaped apparatuses, which are believed to have created and used temporary localized gravitational fields.

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