The Virtual Test Bed Project

This is a report of my activities as a NASA Fellow during the summer of 2002 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The core of these activities is the assigned project: the Virtual Test Bed (VTB) from the Spaceport Engineering and Technology Directorate. The VTB Project has its foundations in the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) Intelligent Launch & Range Operations program. The objective of the VTB project is to develop a new and unique collaborative computing environment where simulation models can be hosted and integrated in a seamless fashion. This collaborative computing environment will be used to build a Virtual Range as well as a Virtual Spaceport. This project will work as a technology pipeline to research, develop, test and validate R&D efforts against real time operations without interfering with the actual operations or consuming the operational personnel s time. This report will also focus on the systems issues required to conceptualize and provide form to a systems architecture capable of handling the different demands.