This Article originally appeared in IT Pro, published by the IEEE Computer Society.
Space is big. Really, really big. And the data involved with space exploration and the related sciences that are in NASA’s purview are … astronomical (sorry NASA—hack joke equivalent to the taxidermy/taxonomy references that I hear). Since its founding in 1958, NASA has led the US government’s exploration of space. Its contributions have extended beyond the government missions it supports to advances that have benefited other parts of the federal government and many industries in the private sector. Because of its unique requirements for data collection and analysis, NASA has been on the forefront of many innovations in data and computational science, and related IT.
