Science Team From Ames Research Center Wins 2009 NASA Software Of Year Award
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- The NASA World Wind Java computer program
developed at the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field,
Calif., is the winner of NASA's 2009 Software of the Year Award.
Software engineers at Ames created the NASA World Wind Java Software
Development Kit and Web Mapping Services Server. NASA World Wind Java
is an open-source platform used to display NASA and U.S. Geological
Survey data on virtual 3-D globes of Earth and other planets. The
displayed information comes from satellites, aerial photography, and
topographic and geographic data.
"I am absolutely delighted the NASA World Wind team has been honored
with this prestigious award," said Ames Director S. Pete Worden. "The
outstanding work of the NASA World Wind team has made a significant
and lasting contribution to Ames' technology development portfolio
and NASA's leadership in geospatial technology."
NASA World Wind is user-friendly, using button or mouse controls to
rotate, pan and zoom through models. The program engages the public
to learn more about our planet and NASA technology. To better enable
government, commercial enterprises, and individual developers to
build the applications they need, the NASA World Wind Java Software
Development Kit is released under the NASA Open Source Agreement and
allows all users to review and test the software source code.
Patrick Hogan leads the NASA World Wind team, which includes Pat
Moran, Tom Gaskins, Paul Collins, Lado Garakanidze, Randolph Kim,
Patrick Murris, Jay Parsons, Chris Maxwell and Rick Brownrigg.
Members of the software development team received medals during a
ceremony in February at the NASA Project Management Challenge
Conference in Galveston, Texas.
This year's runners up were the Spacecraft Planet Instrument C-Matrix
Events Toolkit from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif., and the Copernicus Trajectory Design and Optimization System
from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Honorable mentions
included the Nondestructive Evaluation Wave and Image Processor
Software from NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the
Lightning Protection Design and Verification Tool from NASA's Kennedy
Space Center in Florida and the System Identification Programs for
AirCraft from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance and the Chief Information
Officer sponsor the NASA Software of the Year Competition to identify
innovative software technologies that significantly improve the
agency's exploration of space and maximize scientific discovery on
Earth. A NASA Software Advisory Panel assesses and ranks the entries
and reports its findings to NASA's Inventions and Contributions
Board.
Ames has won or been a co-winner of the NASA Software of the Year
award eight times since it was initiated in 1994.
For more information about NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board,
visit:
http://icb.nasa.gov
For more information and to download NASA World Wind, visit:
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
Source: NASA
