I love space agencies
I love space, and unsurprisingly, I also love the space agencies that we've created. Their contributions to science are far reaching, and they readily share most of the insights that they have gained.
This is more or less a list of things that I think are great that have come from the likes of NASA, ESA, and JAXA among others, or that I associate with them for some reason.
International Standard Payload Rack (ISPR)
The International Standard Payload Rack (ISPR) is a steel framework container that is designed and been adopted by the International Space Station (ISS) program to support efficient integration and interchangeability of space payload hardware, such as machines and experiments.
There's also the closely related EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) Rack:
The EXPRESS Rack is an International Standard Payload Rack (ISPR) modified to provide standard mechanical, data, power, and thermal cooling interfaces to payload developers. It provides space for eight standard Mid-Deck Lockers (Shuttle compatible), two 4-Panel Unit International Subrack Interface Standard (ISIS) drawers, 2000 Watts of 28VDC power to payloads, RS-442, Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553, and video data interfaces.
Isogrid
Isogrid is a type of partially hollowed-out structure formed usually from a single metal plate (or face sheet) with triangular integral stiffening ribs (often called stringers). It was patented by McDonnell Douglas (now part of Boeing). It is extremely light and stiff. Compared to other materials, it is expensive to manufacture, and so it is restricted to spaceflight applications and some particularly critical parts of more general aerospace use.
As stated in the quote, this is something that came from the commercial aerospace industry, but I'm listing it here anyway.
JPEG 2000
NASA, like other space agencies and people who work with GIS systems, seems to love JPEG 2000. They are how I first heard of the file format.
- JPEG 2000 Encoding with Perceptual Distortion Control
- Scan-Based Implementation of JPEG 2000 Extensions
- Evaluation of Algorithms for Compressing Hyperspectral Data
- Determining the Completeness of the Nimbus Meteorological Data Archive
- Advanced JPEG 2000 image processing techniques
- JPEG 2000 over mail protocol
- Optical Toolbox Help - Export JP2
- NASA successfully verifies interoperability of VSF’s TR-01 JPEG 2000 video over IP specification
- HiRISE | PDS_JP2 Software
- JHelioviewer (visualization software for solar image data based on the JPEG 2000 compression standard)
- JHelioviewer: Visualizing Large Sets of Solar Images Using JPEG 2000 (PDF)
- ICER (file format similar to JPEG 2000 used by the NASA Mars rovers)