Features:

MASSIVE SUPERCOMPUTER IS NEEDED FOR NEW MOON, MARS MISSIONS

Leading technology analyst firm IDC said a pioneering, government-funded "Mars Simulator" supercomputer would maximize the chances for success and minimize the cost of President Bush’s proposed manned missions to the moon and Mars.

"We believe a Mars Simulator supercomputer would cost less than one percent of the estimated $170 billion needed for the Mars mission, yet it could be crucial to the success of this mission and the earlier manned moon mission," according to Addison Snell, IDC’s research director for high-performance computing.

According to Snell, "high-performance computing can play a substantial role in mission design, spacecraft design, and mission planning and rehearsal. Advanced supercomputing investments can dramatically increase the likelihood of success by providing a better understanding of the underlying science."

IDC says that the complexity of a manned Mars mission also creates the demand for new categories of simulations. "Any astronaut traveling round trip to Mars will have to survive in the spacecraft or on the Martian surface for over two years. This opens the door to various habitat and survivability studies, including variables like managing water supplies and coping with solar radiation," Snell said.

Computer simulation can save substantial time and money by enabling complex engineering designs and physical scenarios to be evaluated rapidly, and by reducing the need for expensive physical prototypes to be built and tested.

"Virtually every civilian and military vehicle in the world is designed today with the aid of supercomputer simulation," Snell said. "We would expect the Mars Simulator supercomputer program to have great benefits as well for the automotive, aerospace and defense industries—everything from designing safer, more reliable family cars to advancing projects like the joint strikefighter. A computer of this class might also be used for improving medical understanding and combating threats ranging from wildfires to bioterrorism."

Dr. Earl Joseph, vice president of IDC’s workstations and high-performance systems group, said a separate program to develop the Mars Simulator supercomputer should be launched as soon as possible.

Joseph said the program should take an evolutionary approach, building on the best current U.S. supercomputers used for tackling daunting problems in structural analysis, computational fluid dynamics and related disciplines.

"Japan’s Earth Simulator system, currently the world’s most powerful supercomputer, is showing the wisdom of applying substantial funding over multiple years to the evolutionary advancement of HPC computer design," according to Joseph.

"NASA, with its partner research institutions, has long been a leader in supercomputer simulation techniques required for the moon and Mars missions, and would be adept at applying a Mars Simulator supercomputer," Joseph said.

About IDC

IDC is the world's leading provider of information technology (IT) industry analysis, market data and insight, and strategic and tactical guidance to builders, providers and users of information technology. IDC provides global research with local content through more than 600 analysts in 43 countries worldwide. IDC is a division of IDG, the world's leading IT media, research, and exposition company.