KECK INSTITUTE FOR SPACE STUDIES

       

Workshop: Nebulae - Deep-Space Computing Clouds - Part 2

August 31 - September 4, 2020
California Institute of Technology - Pasadena, CA 91125

Joshua Vander Hook

Joshua Vander Hook

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Richard Doyle

Richard Doyle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Valerie Fox

Valerie Fox

University of Minnesota

Ashish Mahabal

Ashish Mahabal

California Institute of Technology

David English

David English

Lockheed Martin

Workshop Overview:

The first workshop of the KISS study program  “Nebulae: Deep-Space Computing Clouds” was held August 26-30, 2019, at the Keck Institute for Space Studies on the Caltech campus. During the first workshop, the participants defined several high impact planetary and small-body mission concepts and high level capabilities enabled by in-situ computing resources orders of magnitude greater than the “minimum required” that is deployed today. A rough roadmap of technical development and investment priorities was defined, scaling from:

  • Smart instruments” which have enough storage and processing to accomplish mapping or population-level statistics without impacting the spacecraft;
  • Mission-level infrastructure that can conduct multi-sensor fusion, archive instrument data for future downlink, and assist with spacecraft navigation and operations;
    up to
  • Campaign-accelerating orbiters which are deployed to deep space targets with reserve capabilities to enable an efficient, data-driven discovery process with iterative objectives from mapping, global geodesy, population-level statistics, and onboard continuous change detection.

All these concepts depend on the spacecraft being “Nebula-enabled”, such that there is sufficient storage and computational capacity for large quantities of data to be gathered, pre-processed and selected for optimal downlink to make the most of the bits that the Deep Space Network (DSN) can support. Reserve or excess computational resources, provided by the Nebula, can be dedicated to processing that extra data on-site, augmenting by several orders of magnitude the amount of data immediately available for scientific inquiry.

The second workshop is scheduled for August 31-September 4, 2020. This workshop will realize practical models for the broadly applicable Nebula concept. First, we will identify missing science cases from Astronomy/Astrophysics and Heliophysics with a focus on identifying commonalities with the planetary and small-body cases already developed in the previous workshop.  In addition, we will establish near-term earth and lunar applications or science opportunities along with technical design references. Upon completion of a technology gap analysis and a review of mission infusion paths and trades, we will determine the technical development roadmap to success, and define the next technical steps (e.g. case studies, technology demonstrations and other follow-on activities). This roadmap will also highlight a set of topics that, if accelerated with additional funding, could materially advance some of the schedule or improve the performance of a planned Nebulae instantiation.


Monday, August 31, 2020
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/98895371873

Time
Event
Speaker
8:45 - 9:00

Welcome to the workshop! Please get yourself settled in early to leave plenty of time for unexpected
technical hitches (test your mic, perfect your video background, grab some coffee or tea), and
informally get to know your fellow participants as we all get ready to start at the top of the hour.

9:00 - 10:00

Logistics
Review study vision
Goals and expectations for workshop #2
Workshop #1 - recap and update

Michele Judd
Team Lead

10:00 - 10:30

Spend some time with other great minds who think alike in one of the watercooler topic rooms ‐
getting to know partipicants is a highlight of KISS workshops! Or use this time for a screen break and
back ready to go at 10:30 AM.

 

10:30 - 10:45

Breakout discussion and rules

All
10:45 - 11:55

SYSTEMS DESIGN
Track 1
Pragmatics

 

Understand/expand the draft long-term roadmaps LM & NVIDIA will bring to the session; identify driving needs per mission

 

 

SCIENCE
Track 2
Driver

 

Discuss broad aims and
overlaps (a) exploring
the inner solar system
(including the sun) (b)
exploring the outer
solar system and (c)
astrophyics (radio,
cosmology, etc.).
Identify key driving
questions from the
community and
decadal survey white
papers to focus
workshop discussions.

RETROSPECTIVE
Track 3
Value Proposition

 

1) Identify small set of space missions to apply retrospective analysis. Ideally cover Planetary, Earth, Astrophysics. Ideally cover Earth/Lunar, Mars, Outer Planets. 2) Characterize resource envelopes (computing, networking, storage) available to those missions.

All
11:55 - Noon

Solicit lightning talks for morning of Day 2 (don't worry we will fill you in on
what a lightning talk is!)

Team Leads

NOON

Grab lunch! Breakout rooms will stay open for people to keep going, other rooms will open up if you want to suggest a topic, or if you already have a couple of folks with whom you want to meet.

 

1:30 - 5:00 PM

Open Zoom Rooms (Main Track Rooms + Sub Rooms)
Homework & Research (group / individual activity)
Go to an empty room and begin new conversations/collaborations.


Tuesday, September 1 2020
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/98895371873

Time
Event
Speaker
8:45 - 9:00

Welcome back! Log in early to continue social conversations, make sure your tech is working as
expected, and get settled in for the day.

9:00 - 9:05

Overview of day

Team Leads
9:05 - 9:20

Brief report outs from breakout groups

Breakout Leads

9:20 - 9:50

Lightning talks requested from Day 1 / Assigning people and outline components

TBD

9:50 - 10:00

Breakout discussion and reminder of the rules

All
10:00 - 10:30

Break ‐ head to a room for good conversation with someone who is interested in the same thing as
you are…

10:30 - 11:55

SYSTEMS DESIGN
Track 1
Pragmatics

 

Roughly categorize the emerging missions; define set(s) of roadmaps desired to support all missions (and keep refining them as we go)

SCIENCE
Track 2
Driver

 

Understand what is available and what is not. What are the must have's, and what are optional. What are the bottlenecks for the mus-haves.

RETROSPECTIVE
Track 3
Value Proposition

 

2) continue (as needed)
3) Project and summarize expanded resource envelopes (computing, networking, storage) available under Nebulae 4) head start (if possible)

All
11:55 - NOON Solicit lightning talks for morning of Day 3 (don't worry we will fill you in on
what a lightning talk is!)
Team Leads
NOON

Grab lunch! Breakout rooms will stay open for people to keep going, other rooms will open up if you want to suggest a topic, or if you already have a couple of folks with whom you want to meet.

 

1:30 - 5:00 PM

Open Zoom Rooms (Main Track Rooms + Sub Rooms)
Homework & Research (group / individual activity)
Go to an empty room and begin new conversations/collaborations.


Wednesday, September 2, 2020
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/98895371873

Time
Event
Speaker
8:45 - 9:00

It's almost routine by now! Log in early to avoid technical glitches, say hi and get settled in to be ready
to go at 9 AM Pacific.

9:00 - 9:05

Overview of day

Team Leads
9:05 - 9:20

Brief report outs from breakout groups

Breakout Leads

9:20 - 9:50

Lightning talks requested from Day 2 / Outline and artwork

TBD

9:50 - 10:00

Breakout discussion and reminder of the rules

All
10:00 - 10:30

Break ‐ head to a room for good conversation with someone who is interested in the same thing as
you are…

 

10:30 - 11:55


SYSTEMS DESIGN
Track 1
Pragmatics

 

Identify the gaps that if
funded would either
accelerate the timeline
significantly or increase
science significantly, or
both; Refine roadmaps
with additional
information from
attendees


An outline of draft
components and
something specific
about figures is
expected

 

SCIENCE
Track 2
Driver

 

Delve deeper into the
bottlenecks of must
have's taking into
consideration from
Tracks A and C.


An outline of draft
components and
something specific
about figures is
expected

RETROSPECTIVE
Track 3
Value Proposition

 

4) Reconceive original
mission science
objectives as to how
they would have
utililized/expoited the
expanded Nebulae
resource envelopes: a)
via scaling, b) via phase
change. (What is now
possible?)


An outline of draft
components and
something specific
about figures is
expected

All
11:55 - NOON Solicit lightning talks for morning of Day 4 (OK ‐ by now, you should know
what a lightning talk is)
Team Leads
NOON

Grab lunch! Breakout rooms will stay open for people to keep going, other rooms will open up if you want to suggest a topic, or if you already have a couple of folks with whom you want to meet.

 

1:30 - 5:00 PM

Open Zoom Rooms (Main Track Rooms + Sub Rooms)
Homework & Research (group / individual activity)
Go to an empty room and begin new conversations/collaborations.

5:00 - 6:00 PM

Robotic Exploration of Titan with Dragonfly - An Overview of the Lander Mobility System - register at link below:
https://www.kiss.caltech.edu/lectures/2020_Dragonfly.html

Doug Adams

Thursday, September 3, 2020
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/98895371873

Time
Event
Speaker
8:45 - 9:00

Good morning! Settle in early, chat with new colleagues, and get ready for another productive
day.

9:00 - 9:05

Overview of day

Team Leads
9:05 - 9:20

Brief report outs from breakout groups

Breakout Leads

9:20 - 9:50 Lightning talks requested from Day 3 / Funding and infusion at parent organizations TBD
9:50 - 10:00

Breakout discussion

All
10:00 - 10:30

Break ‐ head to a room for good conversation with someone who is interested in the same thing as
you are…

10:30 - NOON

SYSTEMS DESIGN
Track 1
Pragmatics

 

Refine and summarize groupings (rationale), roadmaps, gaps; Estimate funding required to close gaps. (Constitutes draft of final output)

SCIENCE
Track 2
Driver

 

Prioritize more
common
enhancements,
standardizing tools,
techniques, …


Draft report

 

RETROSPECTIVE
Track 3
Value Proposition

 

4) continue (as needed).
5) Collect material for report: a) realizable mission advantages, especially for science, b) compelling scenarios, c) other lessons learned, including suprises.

All
NOON

Grab lunch! Breakout rooms will stay open for people to keep going, other rooms will open up if you want to suggest a topic, or if you already have a couple of folks with whom you want to meet.

1:30 - 5:00 PM

Open Zoom Rooms (Main Track Rooms + Sub Rooms)
Homework & Research (group / individual activity)
Additional rooms will be opened so you can continue conversations/collaborations.


Friday, September 4, 2020
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/98895371873

Time
Event
Speaker
8:45 - 9:00

You're a pro at this now. Log in early, refill that new KISS mug with a soothing (or jolting!) beverage and gear up for our final day of the virtual workshop.

9:00 - 9:05

Overview of day

Team Leads
9:05 - 9:20

Brief report outs from breakout groups

Breakout Leads

9:20 - 9:50 Writing timeline and next steps ‐ expectations on where we need to be by
noon today
TBD
9:50 - 10:00

Breakout discussion

All
10:00 - 10:30

Break ‐ head to a room for good conversation with someone who is interested in the same thing as
you are…

10:30 - 11:30


SYSTEMS DESIGN
Track 1
Pragmatics

 

Prove to ourselves that the missions we are proposing are viable (as best we can with our crystal ball) - quantifications of science gain with associated gap costs & calendars

SCIENCE
Track 2
Driver

 

Create a longer term plan.


Draft report


RETROSPECTIVE
Track 3
Value Proposition

 

5) continue (as needed).
6) Draft report.

All
11:30 - 11:45

Brief report outs from breakout groups

Breakout Leads
11:45 - Noon

Informal workshop closeout and path forward

Team Leads
Michele Judd

NOON

The workshop is not over until YOU say its over ;‐)
Grab lunch! Breakout rooms will stay open for people to keep going, other rooms will open up if you
want to suggest a topic, or if you already have a couple of folks with whom you want to meet.

1:30 - 5:00 PM

Open Zoom Rooms (Main Track Rooms + Sub Rooms)
Homework & Research (group / individual activity)
Additional rooms will be opened so you can continue conversations/collaborations.


Workshop Participants:

  • Leon Alkalai - JPL
  • Morgan Cable - JPL
  • Ken Center - Orbit Logic
  • Les Deutsch - JPL
  • Richard (Rich) Doyle - JPL
  • David English - Lockheed Martin Space
  • Valerie Fox - University of Minnesota
  • Anthony (Tony) Freeman - JPL
  • Joseph (Joe) Goldfrank - Stanford University
  • James Gosling - Amazon Web Services
  • Gregg Hallinan - Caltech
  • Trent Hare - U.S. Geological Survey
  • Bob Hodson - NASA Engineering Safety Center
  • Robert(Bob)Hood - ASRC Federal/NASA Ames
  • Mike Johnson - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Joseph (Joe) Lazio - JPL
  • Ashish Mahabal - Caltech
  • Lukas Mandrake - JPL
  • Ben March - University of North Dakota
  • Sandeep Prasad Chinchali - Stanford University
  • Ray Ramadorai - Blue Origin
  • Rob Ruyak - Amazon Web Services
  • Daryl Schuck - World Wide Public Sector
  • David R Thompson - JPL
  • Joshua Vander Hook - JPL
  • Kiley L. Yeakel - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab
  • Kate Zimmerman - Amazon Web Services