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At least 343 records · Page 19

Summary of Responses to the Request for Information (RFI) on Partnerships for Transformational Artificial Intelligence Models

The Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Request for Information (RFI) in December 2025 inviting public comments regarding partnerships for transformational Artificial Intelligence (AI) models for the Genesis Mission Consortium, a public-private partnership platform. This RFI solicited feedback from industry, nonprofit organizations, universities, independent research organizations and other stakeholders. Specifically, the RFI asked three questions on (1) mobilizing DOE National Laboratories to curate the scientific data in a responsible and privacy-preserving manner, (2) the extent to which existing general-purpose AI models can be leveraged and which scientific disciplines are priorities for such model development, and (3) mechanisms by which these AI models can be provided to scientific communities. This document summarizes the input from 194 unique nonproprietary responses from businesses, universities, nonprofit organizations, research institutes and laboratories as well as a variety of other contributors, including individual contributions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A procedure for space SDR prioritization

It was first necessary to arrive at a common set of attributes which described the relative importance of each Scientific Data Requirement (SDR) to the DOE CO2 Research Program. Many attributes were considered. Some were rejected because they related more to engineering considerations than to scientific ones. Finally four were selected: importance for early detection of CO2-induced effects; need for additional measurements; importance for model inputs; and importance for model outputs. Each SDR was scored on these attributes. These scores were categorical (for example, low, medium, and high) and formed the basis for assigning a relative value to each SDR. For this ranking a methodology based on dominance theory was used. The methodology and the selected SDRs are discussed.

Source record↗

Animated computer graphics models of space and earth sciences data generated via the massively parallel processor

The capability was developed of rapidly producing visual representations of large, complex, multi-dimensional space and earth sciences data sets via the implementation of computer graphics modeling techniques on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) by employing techniques recently developed for typically non-scientific applications. Such capabilities can provide a new and valuable tool for the understanding of complex scientific data, and a new application of parallel computing via the MPP. A prototype system with such capabilities was developed and integrated into the National Space Science Data Center's (NSSDC) Pilot Climate Data System (PCDS) data-independent environment for computer graphics data display to provide easy access to users. While developing these capabilities, several problems had to be solved independently of the actual use of the MPP, all of which are outlined.

Treinish, Lloyd A.↗

Flight dynamics facility operational orbit determination support for the ocean topography experiment

The Ocean Topography Experiment (TOPEX/POSEIDON) mission is designed to determine the topography of the Earth's sea surface across a 3 yr period, beginning with launch in June 1992. The Goddard Space Flight Center Dynamics Facility has the capability to operationally receive and process Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) tracking data. Because these data will be used to support orbit determination (OD) aspects of the TOPEX mission, the Dynamics Facility was designated to perform TOPEX operational OD. The scientific data require stringent OD accuracy in navigating the TOPEX spacecraft. The OD accuracy requirements fall into two categories: (1) on orbit free flight; and (2) maneuver. The maneuver OD accuracy requirements are of two types; premaneuver planning and postmaneuver evaluation. Analysis using the Orbit Determination Error Analysis System (ODEAS) covariance software has shown that, during the first postlaunch mission phase of the TOPEX mission, some postmaneuver evaluation OD accuracy requirements cannot be met. ODEAS results also show that the most difficult requirements to meet are those that determine the change in the components of velocity for postmaneuver evaluation.

Bolvin, D. T.↗

Microgravity effects on standardized cognitive performance measures

The purpose of this experiment, selected to fly on the International Microgravity Laboratory (IML-2) Spacelab mission, is to determine the effects of microgravity upon the cognitive skills which are critical to successful performance of many tasks on board the Space Shuttle. Six tests from the Unified Tri-service Cognitive Performance Assessment Battery (UTC-PAB) will be administered to the Mission Specialists to fulfill the goals of this experiment. These tests are based upon current theoretical models of human performance and the hypothesized effects of microgravity. The principle objective is the identification of the effects of microgravity upon specific information processing skills affecting performance from those of fatigue and shifts in work/rest cycles. Multiple measures of both short and long term fatigue will be obtained and used as a major independent variable for the analysis of these performance data. Scientific supporting studies will determine optimum practice and performance testing schedules for the astronauts. The same tests will be used post-flight to collect data on the recovery of any cognitive performance impairment compared with pre-flight, baseline levels.

Schiflett, Samuel G.↗

Reducing the Requirements and Cost of Astronomical Telescopes

Limits on astronomical telescope apertures are being rapidly approached. These limits result from logistics, increasing complexity, and finally budgetary constraints. In an historical perspective, great strides have been made in the area of aperture, adaptive optics, wavefront sensors, detectors, stellar interferometers and image reconstruction. What will be the next advances? Emerging data analysis techniques based on communication theory holds the promise of yielding more information from observational data based on significant computer post-processing. This paper explores some of the current telescope limitations and ponders the possibilities increasing the yield of scientific data based on the migration computer post-processing techniques to higher dimensions. Some of these processes hold the promise of reducing the requirements on the basic telescope hardware making the next generation of instruments more affordable.

Smith, W. Scott↗

Network Performance Measurements for NASA's Earth Observation System

NASA's Earth Observation System (EOS) Project studies all aspects of planet Earth from space, including climate change, and ocean, ice, land, and vegetation characteristics. It consists of about 20 satellite missions over a period of about a decade. Extensive collaboration is used, both with other US. agencies (e.g., National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOA), United States Geological Survey (USGS), Department of Defense (DoD), and international agencies (e.g., European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)), to improve cost effectiveness and obtain otherwise unavailable data. Scientific researchers are located at research institutions worldwide, primarily government research facilities and research universities. The EOS project makes extensive use of networks to support data acquisition, data production, and data distribution. Many of these functions impose requirements on the networks, including throughput and availability. In order to verify that these requirements are being met, and be pro-active in recognizing problems, NASA conducts on-going performance measurements. The purpose of this paper is to examine techniques used by NASA to measure the performance of the networks used by EOSDIS (EOS Data and Information System) and to indicate how this performance information is used.

Loiacono, Joe↗

Automated Analysis of a Large-Scale Sky Survey: The SKICAT System

We describe the application of decision tree based classification techniques to the development of an automated tool for the reduction of a large scientific data set. The primary benefits of the SKICAT approach are increased data reduction throughput, repeatability, and consistency of classification.

data analysis image databases↗

Desert RATS 2011: Near-Earth Asteroid Human Exploration Operations

The Desert Research and Technology Studies (D-RATS) 2011 field test involved the planning and execution of a series of exploration scenarios under operational conditions similar to those that would be expected during a human exploration mission to a near-Earth asteroid (NEA). The focus was on understanding the operations tempo during simulated NEA exploration and the implications of communications latency and limited data bandwidth. Anchoring technologies and sampling techniques were not evaluated due to the immaturity of those technologies and the inability to meaningfully test them at D-RATS. Reduced gravity analogs and simulations are being used to fully evaluate Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) and extravehicular (EVA) operations and interactions in near-weightlessness at a NEA as part of NASA s integrated analogs program. Hypotheses were tested by planning and performing a series of 1-day simulated exploration excursions comparing test conditions all of which involved a single Deep Space Habitat (DSH) and either zero, one, or two MMSEVs; three or four crewmembers; one of two different communications bandwidths; and a 100-second roundtrip communications latency between the field site and Houston. Excursions were executed at the Black Point Lava Flow test site with a Mission Control Center and Science Support Room at Johnson Space Center (JSC) being operated with 100-second roundtrip communication latency to the field. Crews were composed of astronauts and professional field geologists and teams of Mission Operations, Science, and Education & Public Outreach (EPO) experts also supported the mission simulations each day. Data were collected separately from the Crew, Mission Operations, Science, and EPO teams to assess the test conditions from multiple perspectives. For the operations tested, data indicates practically significant benefits may be realized by including at least one MMSEV and by including 4 versus 3 crewmembers in the NEA exploration architecture as measured by increased Scientific Data Quality, EVA Exploration Time, Capability Assessment Ratings, and Overall Acceptability ratings by Crew, Mission Operations, Science, and Education & Public Outreach teams. A combination of text and voice was used to effectively communicate over the 100-second roundtrip communications latency and increased communication bandwidth yielded a small but practically significant improvement in Overall Acceptability as rated by the Science team, although the impact of bandwidth on scientific strategic planning was not assessed. No effect of increased bandwidth was observed with respect to Crew, Mission Operations, or EPO team ratings of Overall Acceptability.

Abercromby, Andrew↗

The selection of imaging systems for planetary photography from space vehicles.

Discussion of the selection of a type of imaging system for a specific mission which will maximize the return of scientific data while keeping development risk and cost to acceptable limits. A representative example is given which shows that the parameters of the optimizing process range from the scientific objectives through the engineering and programming constraints of the spacecraft and mission, to the characteristics of the types of systems. The selections for all planetary missions flown to date have been imaging systems using image tube cameras. Film cameras and mechanical scan cameras, however, have unique advantages which should find application in planetary exploration.

Smokler, M. I.↗

Mission operations technology

Developments in the area of spacecraft operations are examined that can be utilized in mission and spacecraft designs to enhance the efficiency of planetary and other mission operations. The technology enhancements described address four major systems: the spacecraft, the tracking and data system, the spaceflight operations center, and the flight projects. Specific technological advances are detailed in the areas of telemetry monitoring and fault analysis, scheduling systems, and scientific data analysis. The Spacecraft Health Automated Reasoning Prototype and the Engineering Analysis Subsystem Environment can provide real-time monitoring and analysis with limited workforce resources. The Multimission Automation for Real-time Verification of Spacecraft Engineering Link, the Operation Mission Planner, and the Sky Image Classification and Archiving Tool are other examples of systems developed by NASA that enhance operations technology by reducing the need for human input.

Varsi, Giulio↗

Materials properties data base computerization

Material property data plays a key role in the design of jet engine components. Consistency, accuracy and efficient use of material property data is of prime importance to the engineering community. The system conception, development, implementation, and future plans for computer software that captures the Material Properties Handbook into a scientific data base are described. The engineering community is given access to raw data and property curves, display of multiple curves for material evaluation and selection, direct access by design analysis computer programs, display of the material specification, and a historical repository for the material evolution. The impact of this activity includes significant productivity gains and cost reductions; all users have access to the same information nd provides consistent, rapid response to the needs of the engineering community. Future plans include incorporating the materials properties data base into a network environment to access information from other data bases and download information to engineering work stations.

Baur, R. G.↗

Simulation Of Static And Moving Acoustical Sources

Sounds in headphones changed according to movements of listener's head. Signal processor generates three-dimensional sound cues for headphones. Provides up to four independent acoustical sources simultaneously and simulates movements of each source in real time. Used to enhance presentations of data in cockpits of airplanes, in air-traffic-control towers, for training people whose hearing is impaired, for monitoring telerobots in hazardous situations, and for visualizing multidimensional scientific data, among many possible applications.

Wenzel, Elizabeth M.↗

Nonvolatile Memory Solution for Near-Term NASA Missions

Nonvolatile memory (NVM) system that could reliably function in extreme environments is one of the most critical components for many spacecrafts being developed for NASA missions to be launched in next four to seven years. NVM supports the computer system in saving and updating critical state data required for a warm restart after power cycling or in case of a power bus failure. It also provides a power independent mass storage capacity for the scientific data gathered by the instruments. In some cases the window for gathering such data is very small and occurs only once in a given mission. Commercially popular and fully developed Flash NVM technology is inappropriate for many reasons such as the limited read write cycles with slower access speeds, radiation intolerance, higher Single Event Upsets (SEU) rates, etc. It is desirable to have an NVM system based upon a robust cell technology making it immune to the SEUs and with sufficient radiation hardness. Availability of such NVM system seems to be still 5 to 10 years in the future. Meanwhile, it is possible to provide an interim hybrid solution by combining the existing rad-hard technologies. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

Patel, J. U.↗

BATSE data analysis

The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) is one of four instruments on the Compton Observatory which was launched by the space shuttle Atlantis on 5 Apr. 1991. As of the end of Nov. 1993, BATSE detected more than 830 cosmic gamma ray bursts and more than 690 solar flares. Pulsed gamma rays have been detected from at least 16 sources and emission from at least 28 sources (including most of the pulsed sources) has been detected by the earth occultation technique. The daily BATSE operations tasks represent a substantial level of effort and involve a large team which includes MSFC personnel as well as contractors such as UAH. The effort is naturally divided into several areas: data operations, burst operations, occultation operations, and pulsar operations. UAH personnel have been involved to some extent in all of these as well as contributing to various areas of scientific data analysis.

Paciesas, William S.↗

A roadmap toward scaling, reasoning and self-evolving foundation models for nuclear and particle physics

Foundation models have revolutionized artificial intelligence, with Large Language Models demonstrating unprecedented capabilities in multimodal understanding, reasoning and tool use. Nuclear and particle physics stands at a critical juncture where similar transformative potential awaits realization. The field generates exabytes of experimental data, exascale simulations, and decades of theoretical insights — yet these remain largely disconnected from modern Artifical Intelligence (AI) capabilities, with most physics AI applications confined to narrow, task-specific models that suffer from domain shifting when applied to real experimental data. We present a roadmap for FM4NPP (Foundation Model for Nuclear and Particle Physics), systematically scaling from current proof-of-concept models to trillion-parameter architectures capable of autonomous discovery. Our approach advances three critical frontiers: unified data infrastructure integrating detector data, scientific knowledge and computational tools across global facilities; multi-facility foundation models enabling cross-experiment knowledge transfer and accelerated discovery; and agentic AI capabilities for reasoning and autonomous tool use. The resulting self-evolving FM4NPP will transform physics research by converting time-intensive data analysis, theory derivation and computational bottlenecks into rapid AI–human collaborative discovery. This paradigm shift promises to fundamentally accelerate scientific progress in nuclear and particle physics, enabling researchers to focus on high-level insights while AI handles routine analysis and explores vast parameter spaces beyond human capacity.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Scientific Visualization Using the Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST)

Over the past few years the Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST) has matured into a useful tool for visualizing and analyzing scientific data on high-performance graphics workstations. Originally designed for visualizing the results of fluid dynamics research, FAST has demonstrated its flexibility by being used in several other areas of scientific research. These research areas include earth and space sciences, acid rain and ozone modelling, and automotive design, just to name a few. This paper describes the current status of FAST, including the basic concepts, architecture, existing functionality and features, and some of the known applications for which FAST is being used. A few of the applications, by both NASA and non-NASA agencies, are outlined in more detail. Described in the Outlines are the goals of each visualization project, the techniques or 'tricks' used lo produce the desired results, and custom modifications to FAST, if any, done to further enhance the analysis. Some of the future directions for FAST are also described.

Bancroft, Gordon V.↗

Gamma ray astronomy

The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) is one of four instruments on the Compton observatory which was launched by the space shuttle Atlantis on April 5, 1991. As of mid-March, 1994, BATSE detected more than 925 cosmic gamma-ray bursts and more than 725 solar flares. Pulsed gamma rays have been detected from at least 16 sources and emission from at least 28 sources (including most of the pulsed sources) has been detected by the earth occultation technique. UAH participation in BATSE is extensive but can be divided into two main areas, operations and data analysis. The daily BATSE operations tasks represent a substantial level of effort and involve a large team composed of MSFC personnel as well as contractors such as UAH. The scientific data reduction and analysis of BATSE data is also a substantial level of effort in which UAH personnel have made significant contributions.

Paciesas, William S.↗