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NASA Ames Data Processing Software Receives Honorable Mention

This video is a visualization of fluctuating pressure measurements affecting the Space Launch System during a wind tunnel test to simulate the launch of the rocket. Aircraft and spacecraft must be designed to withstand these rapidly changing forces, called buffeting, or risk being shaken to pieces. The changes in pressure are visualized as colors (yellow: higher-than-average pressure; blue: lower-than-average pressure) and represent the moments before the rocket reaches supersonic speeds. Pressure-sensitive paint makes such accurate measurements possible. NASA

NASA management has announced that the Unsteady Pressure-Sensitive Paint (uPSP) Data Processing Software received an honorable mention in the 2023 NASA Software of the Year Award competition. Developed by several teams across NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley—including visualization and aerodynamics experts in the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division—the uPSP software is a collection of applications that processes raw data from wind tunnel-based testing systems.

The uPSP software processes high-speed camera video files, flow condition data, and pressure-sensitive paint calibration data from within the wind tunnel to produce spatially dense, time-based databases of surface pressure on a 3D model.

Pressure-sensitive paint, which glows under black light as air pressure changes on the vehicle's surface, has been used as a tool to study scale aerospace models within NASA’s wind tunnels for decades. However, postprocessing to analyze the data collected from the wind tunnel’s many cameras and sensors often took months.

To reduce turnaround time and enable quick retesting, teams at Ames worked together to link the center’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel and the NAS supercomputers to perform data analysis in real time. In 2019, the successful test of the Red Rover project—named after the playground calling game—sent over 400 terabytes of data from the model of the Space Launch System (SLS) inside the wind tunnel to the supercomputers at NAS, where the Visualization and Data Analysis team had taken the pressure-sensitive paint data processing software and optimized it for real-time visualization on the facility’s hyperwall. There, the SLS design team were able to analyze the results later that evening. The ultimate goal of the project is to perform the visualization in real-time allowing the design team to recommend adjustments, which could then be run immediately at the wind tunnel with no rescheduling delays.

“The significance of this award cannot be understated, and it speaks volumes about the exceptional contributions our visualization experts have collectively made to the field of software development,” said Subhash Saini, Senior Computer Scientist in the NAS Division, and a member of the Ames Research and Technology Council. “Their innovative approach, attention to detail, and unwavering commitment to excellence have set a high standard within the NAS organization.”

Red Rover demonstrated the NAS facility’s ability to transfer, process, and display high-speed wind tunnel data in a way that can enable informed, real-time decisions, decrease design cycle times, and securely share data with experts during the testing phase. A follow-up to this project is currently underway, and the staff at NAS are continuing to work closely with the wind tunnel teams to develop and optimize the uPSP Data Processing software for the facility’s ever-changing supercomputing environment.

NASA’s annual Software of the Year competition rewards high-quality, innovative, and robust software using efficient engineering processes that meet NASA’s stringent safety and reliability standards.