Computer Imaging in Support of the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) Mission Planning Process

Fii. 2. ClyIln Gorick, Untitled, circlepainting,oil oncanvas, 5 x 5 ft, 1992. Inthispaintiugtheartist attemptst o capture the variety ofscale intheuuhmein one stillimage. dots represents siliconatoms, and, as the scale increasesin size,the surfaces of quartzcrystalplates are shown. These plates are then shown on the surface of a singlegrain of sand. I used electromicrographs of sand grains to provide some accuracyin the painting. Sand grainsrecall William Blake’s poetic idea of infinity,and it has been suggestedthat the total number of sand grains on the beaches of the Earth is similarto the total number of starsin the universe. tral image, eroding mountains into sand that is reformed as rock and folded into mountains again. The shapesof quartz plates, grains, stones, boulders, cliffs and mountains are similar. Water ripples, waves and ocean swellsare also self-similar. This fractaleffect is common in nature. In this painting I have tried to mix accuracyand visual invention effectively . An upcoming version of this picture The water cycle flows around the cenmay examine how chaos and order seem to operate in natural systemsand to generate evolutionarychange, and it may explore the ease with which a person can find himself or herself out of his or her depth. Meanwhile,the next painting in this serieswill explore “sunlight harvesting“-a process that is key to life on Earth. COMPUTER IMAGING IN SUPPORTOF THE SPACE EXPLORATION INITIATIVE (SEI) MISSION PLANNING PROCESS Jack Frassanito,John Frassanitoand Associates, 16811El Camino Real, Suite 202, Houston, TX 77058, U.S.A. Received 9Nowmber 1992.Acceptedfm publication by Tom Linehan. For a period of 20years the firm of John Frassanitoand Associates @?+A) practiced traditional industrial design in the areas of consumer and medical products design, relyingheavily on the graphic arts to bring new products to market. Our major activitywas in sup port of Datapont Corporation, a Texas based computer-systemsmanufacturer and early pioneer in the design of the first personal computer, the first &bit microprocessor (the INTEL 8008) and the earlysystems architecture for local area networking. On the basis of this experience,JF&A’s businessevolved from product-hardwaredesign to computer -systemsarchitecture design,relying heavily on the firm’scapabilitiesin the graphic arts. The combined disciplinesof art and systemsdesign changed our business over time from an industrial design service to a servicein support of creative work in many areas-including management and consulting services for Abstracts 251 space-missionplanning for National Aeronauticsand SpaceAdministration (NASA).We use visual technologiesto crystallize the creative efforts of a project team from metafact to artifact through the use of visual media. The transition from concept to realityis often best accomplishedwith images. This has always been the case;however, there are very few professionalpractices whose essentialbusiness is ‘’visualtechnology .”JF&A, currently a support contractor to NASA, provides these services in the areas of space-missionplanning and, most recently, in support of the First Lunar Outpost (FLO)activities. CurrentSpaceExploration PlanningActivities The NASA Exploration Program Office (EXPO)is currentlyformulating a “return to the moon, this time to stay, and then ajourney to Mars.”The current generation of visionaryscientists, engineers and artistsworking on this endeavoris utilizing the latest technclogical tools (i.e.scientificvisualization ) to illuminate the goals of the spaceexploration program. The computer as an imaging device allows a new and unique set of attributes that integrate space-missionscience , technology and art. During the recent NASA FLO design program, preliminarycomputer -aideddesign (CAD) documents of the mission-system elements were created and derived from the system’s engineering process. Teams of up to 100people from various disciplinesworked in a dynamic and changing engineering environment . As the system evolved, CAD documents were updated on an hourly basis and used by the group to define candidate-proposedsolutions and to combine the vast amount of information into a Design Reference Mission (DRM).In this case, a computer-image database kept track of the DRM as it evolved,providing focusfor the group and identifjmg problems that were not apparent when analyzingwords and numbers alone. Discrepanciesin interference and issues such as propellant volume and payload integration became apparent immediatelyin computer images,which can visualize extremelyprecise data. More importantly , computer imaging provided a visual manifestation of work in progress-a process that focused the group’sactivitiesand converted a vast amount of data into a cohesiveendpoint . In the...