ASRC Aerospace Co-Investigator on NASA Research and Development Project Supporting Human and Robotic Technology Initiative.

GREENBELT, Md. -- ASRC Aerospace Corporation will provide technical R&D support as a co-investigator to NASA on a new project entitled "Reconfigurable Scalable Computing for Space Applications", or RSC. This four-year project was recently selected for funding by NASA's Human and Robotic Technology (H&RT) 2004 Intramural Call for Proposals. The roles of principal investigator and project management reside at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA. Other team members cover a wide range of technical skills and geographic locations and include: NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center (Greenbelt, MD), The University of Queensland (Brisbane, Australia), Jefferson Laboratory (Newport News, VA), Star Bridge (Midvale, UT), and the National Security Agency (Fort Meade, MD).

"ASRC is excited about supporting NASA in their Human Robotic and Technology Initiative", said Gregg Einfalt, ASRC Aerospace Corporation, Vice President of Engineering. "Meeting the RSC project goals will result in a new spaceborne computer system that is scalable, adaptable, and will uniquely provide safe and reliable performance over a broad range of complex applications within a difficult operating environment. ASRC Aerospace is leading or partnering on several other intramural and extramural projects in support of NASA's Exploration Initiatives. We are very proud to be involved in this NASA vision."

The RSC system architecture will support a scalable number of reconfigurable processing nodes utilizing "soft" processor cores, which are commercially available. The team plans to use reconfigurable field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) in innovative ways to achieve the design and be fault tolerant to the harsh environment of space. For communications, these processing nodes will be interconnected by a multilevel network topology -- also reconfigurable and possessing redundant links between nodes. ASRC Aerospace, led by Dr. Robert Jones, will be responsible for the formal modeling aspects of the project that will enhance design realization and support product verification.

ASRC Aerospace, a subsidiary of the ASRC Federal Holding Company, is a highly diversified enterprise formed in November 1997 and certified as an Alaskan Native Corporation (ANC) 8(a) with the Small Business Administration (SBA). ASRC Aerospace is a for-profit corporation and is dedicated to providing comprehensive professional, technical, and engineering services. The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, ASRC Federal's parent corporation, is owned by more than 9,500 Inupiat Eskimos primarily located along Alaska's North Slope. To learn more about ASRC Aerospace, visit www.asrcaerospace.com.

Point of Contact
Dr. Rob Jones, Principal Engineer
ASRC Aerospace Corp.
P.O. Box 183
Williamsburg, VA 23187
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