National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov

IT Talk

Apr - Jun 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 2
IT Talk

Apr - Jun 2021 Volume 11 • Issue 2

Office of the CIO

NASA Headquarters

300 E Street SW

Washington, D.C. 20546

Chief Information Officer

Jeff Seaton

Editor & Publication Manager

Eldora Valentine

Graphic & Web Designer

Michael Porterfield

Copy Editor

Meredith Isaacs

Cover Art

Andrew Dick

IT Talk is an official publication of the 

Office of the Chief Information Officer 

of the National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration, Headquarters, 

Washington, D.C. It is published 

by the OCIO office for all NASA 

employees and external audiences.

For distribution questions or to 

suggest a story idea, email:

eldora.valentine-1@nasa.gov

To read IT Talk online visit:

www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio/ittalk

For more info on the OCIO:

v www.nasa.gov/offices/ocio

v inside.nasa.gov/ocio

 (Internal NASA network only)

v www.nasa.gov/open/

www.facebook.com/NASAcio

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Message From 

the NASA CIO

Data: Unleashing 

the Power of NASA’s 

Transformation

Installing Fiber-Optic 

Cable Across Wallops 

Marshland

Ames Research Center 

Leadership Series

How a Customized

Camera System Connects

the Mars 2020 Team

In this Issue
Imagine a future where NASA employees could have access to intuitive tools to 

locate, mine, harness, and translate NASA’s data into timely actions and results. 

In this issue, we’ll take a closer look at an Enterprise Data Platform (EDP), which 

is a suite of data management and analytics services to solve many common data 

management and analytics problems using an enterprise approach. This “one-stop 

shop” consists of industry-leading products for data virtualization and management, data modeling and analytics, and data visualization. It’s a game changer for 

data sharing at NASA. 

And we’ll go behind the scenes at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for an 

up-close and personal look at how information technology (IT) played a major role 

in the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Mission. On the rover’s landing day, JPL IT 

helped the Mars team bring the thrills of Mission Control to homes across America 

with a newly developed camera system.

And finally, it has been one year since so many of us been home teleworking. The 

past year has certainly transformed nearly every aspect of our world. We’ll look at how most of us have adjusted in our 

new at-home/work environment, which now consists of makeshift home offices, kitchen tables, spare bedrooms, the 

basement, or maybe even the garage.

Throughout it all, we have been able to provide our customers with secure, effective, and reliable IT capabilities. Those 

who are working from home have found tools and strategies to boost collaboration and work satisfaction. Each day, I’m 

grateful to the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) team for its commitment to working together and keeping the 

Agency moving forward during these unique and challenging times.

With gratitude, 

Jeff Seaton

NASA Chief Information Officer

JPL Names Mattmann New CTIO

By Whitney Haggins, IT Communications Strategist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory,

California Institute of Technology

Chris Mattmann was announced as the new Chief Technology and 

Innovation Officer (CTIO) of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) 

Information and Technology Solutions Directorate (ITSD), succeeding Tom Soderstrom. In this role, Mattmann will focus on defining, 

describing, and bringing in the innovations and bleeding-edge 

technologies that will matter for JPL’s future. He will also serve as 

an emissary to the tech industry’s IT pioneers with future technology vendors. Mattmann will remain as Division Manager for the Artificial Intelligence, Analytics and Innovative Development Division 

and continue to manage advanced IT research, open-source and 

technology evaluation, and user infusion capabilities.

Mattmann has been with JPL for over 20 years. He is the Laboratory’s first Principal Scientist in Data Science and an internationally recognized expert in data science; cybersecurity; artificial intelligence (AI); informatics to multiple domains, including 

space science, Earth science, and planetary science; and other 

industries. He conceived and delivered the architecture for the 

next generation of reusable science data-processing systems 

for NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), National Polar-orbiting 

Operational Environmental Satellite 

System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) Sounder Product Evaluation 

and Test Element (PEATE), and the 

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) 

missions. He has received funding for 

his work from NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects 

Agency (DARPA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 

the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes 

of Health (NIH), the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and 

private industry and commercial partnerships.

Mattmann is a champion/contributor to open source software code and was a member of the Board of Directors at the 

Apache Software Foundation (2013–18). He is the progenitor 

of the Apache Tika framework, the digital “Babel fish” and de 

facto content-analysis and detection framework.

Chris Mattmann

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2021 3

Message from the NASA CIO 
Ames Research Center Leadership Series: 

Reflections on 2020 Shines Light on Achievements

in the Midst of a Pandemic

By Penny Hubbard, Ames IT Directorate Communication Specialist, Ames Research Center

March 8, 2021, marked the oneyear anniversary of when the threat 

of COVID-19 became a reality for 

NASA’s Ames Research Center. In the 

new Leadership Series: Reflections 

on 2020, Center Director Eugene 

Tu meets with Center leaders as 

they recount—in spite of all the 

difficulties of 2020—their impressive 

accomplishments and the challenges 

overcome, and they look to what lies 

ahead for their organizations.

The first of many informative sessions 

finds Center Director Eugene Tu 

speaking with Ames’s CIO and 

IT Directorate (Code I) Leader, 

John Garrigues. In their reflections 

session, John covers the essential IT 

technology and systems, recounts 

the challenges of transition and 

technology for telework, and discusses 

what he and his team have learned 

during the pandemic. John highlights 

the challenges that Code I met during 

“the COVID year” and 

how his team addressed 

the myriad details of 

keeping Ames personnel 

connected, established 

telework methods and 

best practices, and 

ensured that in-person 

interactions were 

pandemic-safe. John 

also covers NASA’s 

cybersecurity posture and how NASA’s 

Security Operations Center, including 

forensics and incident response, 

were successfully and securely 

managed from telework locations. 

The IT Directorate developed 

tools, not only for Ames, but in use 

across the Agency, such as the HR 

application tracking civil servant 

training, a dispatch tool for physical 

security and fire services to connect 

faster, and spectrum management 

programs ensuring better efficiencies 

for missions working with everything 

from radio frequencies (here on Earth) 

to small-satellite projects in space. 

Looking ahead, John is anticipating 

success as we continue to roll out 

“new normal” collaboration tools, 

balance onsite and remote offices, and 

leverage best practices for success at 

Ames and for all of NASA’s missions. 

View John Garrigues’s and other 

Directorate Leader video sessions, 

including Ames Aeronautics and 

Exploration Directorates, here:

https://insideames.arc.nasa.gov/

reflections-on-2020/

Ames Center Director Eugene Tu (left) 

converses with Ames CIO John Garrigues 

during a virtual reflection on 2020

CP Receives Five 2020 Agency Honor Awards

By Sylvester Placid, Communications Strategist, Communications Program, Marshall Space Flight Center

The Communications Program (CP) received five 2020 

Agency Honor Awards, NASA’s most prestigious honor 

awards presented to carefully selected individuals and 

groups who have distinguished themselves by making outstanding contributions to the Agency’s mission.

CP individual and team recipients for 

2020 include the following:

• Kathy Hatley (Exceptional Achievement Medal)

For exemplary achievement as the Source Evaluation Board Chair for the Government Services 

Administration Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions Telecommunications contracts.

• Jose Nunez-Zapata (Exceptional Achievement Medal) 

For outstanding technical leadership in the deployment of 

software-defined networking at Langley Research Center 

for network automation and advanced cybersecurity.

• IPTV Program Team (Group 

Achievement Award) For exemplary performance in the design 

and implementation of the Communications Program Internet 

Protocol Television project.

• Enterprise Voice Transformation 

Team (Group Achievement Award)

For exemplary performance in the 

design and implementation of the enterprise voice transformation to interconnect NASA Center voice systems.

• Software-Defined Access Early Deployment Team

(Group Achievement Award) For exemplary performance in the deployment of a software-defined 

access next-generation network capability on the 

Langley Research Center production network.

4 www.nasa.gov
A New Way of Working with JSC

As we mark one year since 

the transition to new working 

environments because of the 

COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson Space 

Center employees offer a look into 

some of their transformed workspaces 

and ways of working, including some 

new four-legged coworkers!

Working from home can be fun, 

at times—short commute, Teams 

meetings, finding the mute button. 

This old guy, Kris, doesn’t make too 

much noise, and he does offer squirrel 

and Amazon delivery alerts.

—Lucie Delheimer, COMIT Configuration 

Management, Information Resources 

Directorate

Heights Mission Control. As a systems 

administrator, I follow the Mission 

Control N+1 need for monitors and 

data.

—Richard McIntyre, COMIT Systems 

Administrator & Alternate Data Center Facility 

Manager, Information Resources Directorate

My four-legged co-teleworker, Ace.

—Samuel Henry, IT Specialist,

Flight Operations Directorate

Currently set up to work at home for 

almost a year, I share my desk with 

my grandkids, who are doing online 

schooling. On the weekends, we use 

my desk for fun, either playing a board 

game or finishing a jigsaw puzzle. 

Although I miss my office, peers, and 

management a lot, I find it a blessing 

being close to family and observing 

my grandkids’ day-to-day schoolwork.

—Samia Chedid, COMIT Multimedia Specialist, 

Information Resources Directorate

Standing or sitting, I enjoy my 

continuously growing wall of images 

from work, postcards from colleagues, 

and pieces of the past.

In the first week of telework, my 

personal writing space became a more 

formalized workspace. Folding table 

and straight-back chair were replaced 

with newly purchased table, lift top, 

and office chair. They would be good 

for writing when I returned to the office 

in a few weeks—right? One year later, 

my workspace remains. Writing space 

is another wall with the same folding 

table complemented by a dry-erase 

board, huge sketch pad, and copper 

mug of candy canes. I am fortunate to 

have a designated workspace where 

I can close the door and a nearby 

window to the outside world.

In one sense, my home office is bigger 

on the inside. Where I once talked 

over my shoulder to ask officemates 

questions or answer theirs, I now post 

to Teams, where fellow teleworkers 

across NASA Centers ask and answer 

questions, exchange jokes and emojis, 

and support one another from afar. 

I still reach out to my local peeps. 

Instead of walking down the hall to 

engage in discussion, I click a camera 

icon to initiate a video call. Others 

reach out to me the same way for help 

with one of many applications or just a 

little support in their solitude.

Across the Agency and Johnson 

Space Center, we’ve been here for 

each other.

—Jaumarro A. Cuffee, COMIT Communications 

Strategist, Information Resources Directorate

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2021 5
Data: Unleashing the Power of NASA’s Transformation

Providing NASA with the ability to simply mine, harness, and 

translate data into timely and actionable insights, at scale 

By Jason Duley, OCIO Information Management Program Executive and Digital Transformation Data Lead, Headquarters

Today, NASA’s engineers, researchers, scientists, and technicians face 

challenges with finding, accessing, and sharing data. Gaining access 

to data for analysis is often resource-intensive, and an agile process is 

greatly needed as NASA leadership requires timely insight into datasets 

to gain situational awareness and make decisions at the velocity of 

business. NASA’s data ecosystem is a massive source of untapped power, as NASA has as many pieces of data and information as there are 

stars and planets in the sky. Data are distributed across many platforms 

and organizations, a situation that adds complexity in leveraging data 

as a strategic asset. Firewalls and access controls create siloed data 

systems, which lead to incomplete data inventories, noncomprehensive search capabilities, and no common enterprise approach to data 

governance. In many cases, current tooling often requires a programming component and, in most cases, has a steep learning curve. NASA’s 

workforce needs simple and intuitive tools to locate, mine, harness, 

and translate NASA’s data into timely actionable insights; common and 

non-resource-intensive ways to fast-track data sharing; and a culture of 

“default to share” for data. We imagine a future in which NASA’s more 

than 17,000 employees can get the data they need, when they need it, 

wherever they need it.

To address these data challenges facing the Agency, in FY 2021, OCIO 

and the Agency Business Innovation Office (Digital Transformation 

Program) teamed to roll out an Enterprise Data Platform (EDP), which 

is a suite of data management and analytics services to solve many 

common data management and analytics problems using an enterprise 

approach. This “one-stop shop” consists of industry-leading products 

for data virtualization and management, data modeling and analytics, 

and data visualization. These tools are securely hosted in the cloud 

and give users the ability to tap into the full power of NASA data while 

lowering the barrier of entry for data storytelling. The EDP will contain 

a comprehensive data catalog or Yellow Pages of NASA datasets to 

greatly increase data discoverability. Combined with a cultural shift in 

data sharing and normalized data-sharing policies, data access can be 

accomplished in a more reusable manner as the EDP will provide our 

Agency’s data stewards with an enterprise platform to govern key NASA 

datasets. By working in this manner, the months and weeks that were 

previously required to find and gain access to data can be drastically 

reduced to days and hours, enabling an agile data-analytics platform for 

Agency users. With the EDP’s suite of tools, the workforce will be empowered with low-code tooling to gain hindsight, insight, and foresight 

into NASA’s data. 

What can you do to support this effort? The EDP is only as powerful as the data that feed it and the behaviors that drive it. Let us work 

together to get the most out of this untapped power source. You can (1) 

promote an open and collaborative data culture to enable more experimentation and discovery; (2) work with Agency data stewards to identify 

and contribute high-value datasets; and (3) become an early adopter of 

EDP by bringing use cases to test, learn, and evolve the platform. If you 

are interested in learning more about EDP or how we can work together, 

please reach out to Jason Duley at jason.duley@nasa.gov.

OCIO and DT partnership is critical for NASA data and 

information. What we are doing in our data work is putting the 

foundation for NASA to utilize data for better discussion making 

by providing hindsight, insight, and foresight to our information.

—Ron Thompson, NASA Chief Data Officer

6 www.nasa.gov
CP Drives IT Improvements To Improve SLS 

Manufacturing Performance

By Sylvester Placid, Communications Strategist, Communications Program, Marshall Space Flight Center

The NASA Communications Program 

(CP) collaborated with Boeing over 

the last two years to implement IT 

infrastructure improvements at the 

Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) and 

Stennis Space Center (SSC) in support 

of Space Launch System (SLS) manufacturing for the Artemis missions.

At MAF, a comparison of performance 

benchmarks between July 2019 and 

November 2020 shows that joint 

CP and Boeing enhancements have 

improved overall network performance 

around 90 percent.

Network infrastructure improvements 

at MAF include wired and wireless 

performance for large file downloads, 

the printing of large files, and network bandwidth increases for MAF 

and SSC. Additional performance 

enhancements resulted from establishing direct fiber connections between 

NASA and Boeing, upgrading wireless 

access points at both MAF and SSC, 

and creating a specialized “partner 

network” for Boeing to allow seamless 

connectivity between wired and wireless users on the manufacturing floor.

The joint CP and Boeing team is not 

stopping with these improvements. 

Later this year, a new private longterm evolution (LTE) cellular network 

will be piloted for “shipside” support, 

enabling seamless network connectivity for SLS manufacturing even closer 

to the Artemis launch vehicle, where it 

is most needed.

Completed Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage at Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) Credit: NASA/Jude Guidry

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2021 7
Shifting Tides, High Winds, and Endangered Birds:

Installing 20,000 Feet of Fiber-Optic Cable Across Wallops Marshland

By Sylvester Placid, Communications Strategist, Communications Program, Marshall Space Flight Center

Communications Program (CP) Cable 

Plant Service Element Manager Haig 

Arakelian and Service Manager Ted 

Dean knew that they had their biggest 

challenge ahead when they began work 

to install 20,000 feet of upgraded fiberoptic cable across 3.5 miles of protected marshland for launch operations 

at Wallops Flight Facility (WFF). The 

fiber not only supports NASA corporate and mission networks and launch 

operations at WFF, but also Northrop 

Grumman Cygnus cargo launches to 

the International Space Station (ISS), 

the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport 

(MARS), Rocket Lab Electron launches, 

and U.S. Navy Surface Combat Systems Center operations and testing 

at Wallops Island. The upgraded fiber 

will support next-generation mission 

requirements, including faster datatransfer rates, 4K/8K video, and future 

capabilities over the next 30 years.

“The project was 32 months in design 

and procurement due to the complexity,” says Dean. “It was a 10-month 

process to obtain Federal and state 

environmental permits.” The cable 

routing crosses outside NASA property and into the Chincoteague National 

Wildlife Refuge, operated by the U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service, and exits at 

the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) 

runway airfield operated by MARS, so 

deconfliction plans were required to 

continue UAS flight operations during 

drilling for the project.

Environmental Challenges

Barges with drilling equipment travel 

3.5 miles from Chincoteague Island 

to the work area while navigating 

rapidly shifting tides, high winds, and 

frequent heavy fog. Once the duct in 

the marshland is drilled, the fiber-optic 

cable will be jetted (or blown) into the 

duct with air pressure using vibratory 

plowing equipment across 4,200 feet 

of marshland.

The refuge is home to oyster beds, 

the Chincoteague wild ponies, and 

endangered bird species, including the 

Eastern Black Rails, which nest there. 

The nesting period limits the construction period to just 7 months, adding 

time pressure to the complex project.

Shared Vision

Successful collaboration between Haig 

and Ted has been instrumental in accomplishing the project, particularly as 

Ted is based in Ohio and Haig is based 

in California.

“Haig’s background in running fiber 

cables for critical operations allowed 

us to maintain the same vision, and 

our common direction helps us quickly 

move forward with an enterprise model for cable plant across NASA,” says 

Dean. “Neither of us can successfully 

complete this project without the support of Chip Palumbo, our cable plant 

engineer, and Karalyn Springle, our 

NASA Office of the Chief Information 

Officer Project Manager.”

“Ted is a very enthusiastic and positive person,” says Arakelian. “He 

shares ownership of our vision to 

support NASA’s missions in the future 

with enhanced cable plant infrastructure, which should be seen as critical 

infrastructure just like power and gas. 

As wireless communications become 

more pervasive, the reliability of the 

backend cabling to ensure connectivity is more essential than ever.” Ted Dean, Cable Plant Service Manager (left), and Haig 

Arakelian, Cable Plant Service Element Manager (right). 

Fiber duct drilling across Wallops Island marshland. (Photo courtesy Patrick J. Henderson) 

8 www.nasa.gov
From top: A barge positions fiber optic 

cable on to marshland for drilling; horizontal 

directional drilling is used to create ducts 

that the cable will be jetted into with air 

pressure using vibratory plowing equipment; 

specialized, low pressure equipment carefully 

navigates the delicate marshland; equipment is 

moved across waterways after dense fog lifts. 

(Photos courtesy of Ted Dean)

NASA OCIO IT Talk Apr - Jun 2021 9
How a Customized Camera System 

Connects the Mars 2020 Team

By Emily Tjaden, Communication Specialist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

In the past year, technology has 

played a pivotal role in maintaining 

connection and collaboration while 

people continue to remain socially distant, which is why the Mars 2020 mission enlisted the expertise of JPL IT to 

expand its digital toolkit for key surface flight operations team members.

To maintain valuable visual cues and 

situational awareness within mission rooms that would otherwise be 

lacking in a remote environment, a 

closed-circuit camera system was 

created. It contains ten strategically 

placed cameras livestreaming video 

to preapproved contacts through a 

secure website requiring two-factor 

authentication. On the streaming 

website, participants can customize 

their viewing experience by selecting 

which camera they want to watch, 

or they can have all ten streams 

simultaneously displayed in a grid 

format, ensuring that not a moment of the action will be missed. 

The system all had to be designed 

built, installed, and operational within 

just a couple of months to allow for 

testing and any potential hardware 

delays. Fortunately, JPL IT recently 

developed and installed a motioncapture camera system for a custom 

application developed to enhance 

COVID-19 safety on Lab by monitoring 

the number of people in the cafeterias, which provided a similar framework for the Mars 2020 livestream 

needs. Repurposing the technology 

helped accelerate the development 

process, but it was a team effort by 

Mars 2020, JPL IT, Laboratories & 

Facilities, the Protective Services 

Division, and others to make sure all 

of the components were in place.

The team also found cost-saving 

opportunities despite the customized nature of the project. The unique 

casings and brackets were 3D-printed 

in-house by a member of the IT team. 

Each casing contains a relatively inexpensive Raspberry Pi camera, which 

connects to AWS Cloud and turns 

off when not in use. This project is a 

six-month pilot, but if it is deemed a 

valuable asset to ongoing Mars 2020 

operations, different missions, and 

other JPL projects, it will be slated 

as a future JPL IT service offering.

“We wanted to overcome the fact that 

we were not together,” said Michael 

Kimes, an enterprise software systems 

project manager who helped coordinate the project for Mars 2020. He 

went on to share how he hoped the 

mission team might take advantage 

of the technology: “Pick the room 

that you would have been sitting in 

or pick the group that you want to 

watch and please join and be as much 

a part of this as we can make it.”

10 www.nasa.gov
National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Office of the Chief Information Officer

300 E Street SW

Washington, DC 20546

www.nasa.gov

NASA

IDG’s CIO Names JPL a 2021 

CIO 100 Award Winner

By Whitney Haggins, IT Communications Strategist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has been named 

by IDG’s CIO as a recipient of the 2021 CIO 100 award. 

The 34th annual award program celebrates the top 

100 organizations and teams that are using information 

technology (IT) in innovative ways to deliver business value. 

The award exemplifies the highest level of operational 

and strategic excellence in IT and is an acknowledged 

mark of enterprise excellence. CIO Randi Levin said of the 

announcement, “I am thrilled with our selection to the 2021 

CIO 100. Being named with this honor is another example 

of how JPL IT taps into the expertise of its people, enabling 

them to create innovative and effective IT solutions for JPL.”

The 2021 CIO 100 class is special due to the pandemic; 

many honorees helped their organizations transition to a 

new reality through their creativity and expediting of new 

technologies. This is JPL’s 10th consecutive selection to the 

CIO 100. The complete list of winners is available at https://

www.cio.com/article/3391918/2021-us-cio-100-winnerscelebrating-it-innovation-and-leadership.html.

The winning companies will be honored at the virtual 2021 

CIO 100 Symposium and Awards Ceremony in August.

IT Talk