Features - Enterprise Data Insights:

MARS MISSION BACKED BY SPECTRA LOGIC

NASA Langley Vehicle Analysis Branch is using a Spectra T950 tape library to store valuable trajectory flight data from NASA's recent MER-Spirit (Mars Exploration Rover) entry into the Mars atmosphere and landing on the surface. This data is valuable because the MER-Opportunity lander did a similar entry and landing on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 24 ­- three weeks after Spirit, and information from Spirit's entry can be used to adjust Opportunity's entry to increase the chances of success. Because of the requirement to test all changes, the MER team only had about 12 days to assess the data from Spirit, determine potential changes and then test the changes before providing the information to the flight software coders.

"We chose the Spectra T950 after researching competing libraries because of its high performance, density and reasonable cost," said Prasun Desai, Langley's MER project lead. "We've been able to significantly improve backup speed with the highly recommended enterprise tape library."

NASA Langley chose a Spectra T950 with LTO-2 tape drives to backup space, aircraft and other scientific data, including trajectory data from its January 2004 MER mission. Data is sent from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where it is then backed up by the Spectra T950 tape library. This provides quick recovery of the data, and guards against the loss of data on the working disks coupled with an inability to re-receive the data from JPL.

"Spectra Logic has been delivering innovative storage products for nearly 25 years," said Nathan Thompson, Spectra Logic's chief executive officer. "The Spectra T950's radically different architecture with its scalability and TeraPack-based design is changing the world of storage. Spectra Logic is proud to have been able to make a small contribution to NASA's very successful Mars mission."