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Merging Two Powerful Software Tools to Create a One-of-a-Kind Exploration Capability

Under this partnership made possible by NASA’s Partnership Seed Fund program, Goddard Space Flight Center is integrating the ILIADS software, a geospatial information system (GIS) it developed for lunar applications, with Questus™, a management and planning software tool developed by United Space Alliance (USA) for Space Shuttle operations. The integration will result in a new decision-making application that NASA can use to plan and carry out future robotic and crewed missions to the Moon.

Benefits of Technology Transfer

  • The resulting ILIADS-Questus software product will allow mission planners to directly apply scientific data gathered from remote-sensing satellites and other sources to select potential landing and habitat sites.

  • Ultimately, the tool will support human exploratory sorties on the lunar surface later in the next decade.

  • USA can commercialize the new product, particularly in its work developing NASA’s next-generation transportation system, the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV).

  • As private companies increase their participation in lunar exploration, they too will need access to scientific data and decision-making tools afforded by ILIADS, its facilities, and the system’s associated scientific expertise. The integrated software will meet those needs, providing an additional revenue stream for the company.

About United Space Alliance

United Space Alliance is a world leader in space operations, with extensive experience in virtually all aspects of the field. Headquartered in Houston and employing 10,000 people in Texas, Florida, and Alabama, USA is applying its broad range of capabilities to NASA’s Space Shuttle, International Space Station, and Constellation programs as well as to space-operations customers in the commercial and international space industry sectors.

Technology Origins

Using internal research and development funding, Goddard technologists designed an integrated tool suite useful for lunar exploration. ILIADS—short for Integrated Lunar Information Architecture for Decision Support—gives users access to three-dimensional lunar crater scenes, topographic contour maps, surface distance and elevation measurements, in situ resource and hazard maps, as well as historical mission data and other useful datasets.

USA also used its own internal resources to develop Questus, which combines three software programs that the company developed for space operations. The toolkit offers a variety of functions that will help mission-operations personnel more efficiently find and retrieve information, schedule daily astronaut activities, and carry out robotic operations. Questus is scheduled for beta testing following the International Space Station Expedition 15 mission in March 2007. The full-up program—Questus 1.0—will be available for CEV systems in July 2008.

Finding a New Use

NASA planners and decision makers must be able to process, analyze, display, and manipulate all types of environmental information about the Moon to ensure the success of the Agency’s lunar exploration program. Such an all-in-one decision-making and planning tool currently does not exist. Goddard is modifying ILIADS so that its server, server interface, and datasets are available to Questus in a standard format. Meanwhile, USA is modifying Questus to support ILIADS’s lunar environmental data. With these modifications, including a continuous zoom-and-pan function, users will be able to visually specify geographic areas on the Moon and quickly retrieve more specific data about that area.

The Transfer Process

Goddard and USA developed their software tools independently. From consultations with Goddard’s Innovative Partnerships Program Office, both realized that their tools could become more powerful and have wider application if they were integrated. In 2006, NASA selected the collaboration for its Partnership Seed Fund and provided additional resources for the partners to integrate these two software systems under their respective internal R&D investment programs. The Partnership Seed Fund, which NASA introduced in 2006, is designed to encourage joint-development partnerships between its organizations, private industry, and others.

Looking Ahead

Goddard and USA expect to complete the integration of ILIADS and Questus in time for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a Goddard-led mission that will spend a year mapping the Moon after its launch in 2008. With the new capability, exploration mission planners will get faster, more efficient access to LRO data, which they can then use to plan and carry out subsequent missions to the Moon, including crewed lunar operations.

Contact

Innovative Partnerships Program Office
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Phone: (301) 286-5810
E-mail: techtransfer@gsfc.nasa.gov

(2007)

lunar surface illustration indicating steep slopes or rough terrain

Lunar surface illustration showing topography


These two three-dimensional maps of the Dawes crater on the lunar surface illustrate the type of information that the ILIADS-Questus software product will make available to mission planners and researchers. In the image on the top, the areas in red, orange, and yellow indicate steep slopes or rough terrain, while those in blue and green show relatively smoother terrain. The image on the bottom shows topography. Darker browns indicate higher elevations, while the lighter colors signify lower elevations.



On the Record

“Combining Goddard’s scientific data and science operations capabilities with our real-time flight operations expertise is a partnership that will help NASA achieve its Vision for Space Exploration. All missions leading up to and including human sorties on the Moon will depend heavily on information about the lunar environment, information that this partnership will provide.” 
—Gerald E. Miller Manager, Strategic Technology Initiatives and Independent Research and Development, USA 

“Our partnership with USA has made all of the difference in the development of the new product. Without USA’s perspective, we would tend to build a tool that is conceived by and useful to scientists. With the company’s guidance, we are building a tool that will be useful in mission operations.”
—Julia Loftis, Co-Investigator, Goddard Space Flight Center 

“I don’t think this partnership could have happened without the support of Goddard’s Innovative Partnerships Program Office and the Agency’s new Seed Fund. I am so pleased to see NASA putting real resources toward initiating partnerships. There will be very real benefits to specific NASA objectives in terms of both cost and capabilities.”
—Julia Loftis, Co-Investigator, Goddard Space Flight Center 

“This merging of talents and capabilities is precisely what NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program hoped to accomplish with the recently established Seed Fund. By providing resources to help foster joint-development partnerships, the Agency will benefit from a tool that may not have been developed otherwise.”
—Darryl Mitchell, NASA Goddard’s Innovative Partnerships Program Office