Big-data Efficient and Automated Science Transfer (BEAST): An Open-Source Software Architecture for Arc Jet Data Management, Modeling, and Automation

Big-data Efficient and Automated Science Transfer (BEAST) is a facility data management application developed for the NASA Ames arc jet facilities. The current decentralized data management practices limit statistical tracking, synchronization between video/time series, search capability, data throughput, and data processing speed/efficiency. Consequently, BEAST was developed to provide a new data infrastructure with streamlined data collection, processing, transfer, and analysis. This new framework also seeks to implement the FAIR principles of data stewardship: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable.

The BEAST framework is based on a combination of the Python Django web framework and the Python data stack to provide a monolithic, open-source platform for data management,
automation, and machine learning. This architecture was chosen for maintainability and scalability for a small, in-house development team. This paper will describe the application
framework, deployment, and discuss the benefits and future plans for the system.