Virtual Collaborations with the Real: NASA's New Era in Space Exploration

People base their view of nature on a new device that is both revolutionary and pervasive. Because we humans built the device, we can comprehend it. Consequently, the new technology often further serves humans as a well-understood analog of nature. In the present context, some scientists claim that the basic particle of the universe is information; that information is not an abstraction of reality—it is, in fact, reality. 1 While some of these views are indeed extreme, they form the basis for current discussions within the scientific community. If new technologies can inspire a new understanding of our universe, we might ask how far and in what direction can computer science research itself be pushed? NASA is poised to play a significant role in answering this question. Traditionally, NASA has pointed the way for many new technologies. NASA has identified the directions that have led to the breakthroughs in flight and space flight that we now often take for granted, playing a key leadership role that has galvanized large research, development, and industrial communities. NASA will need to play a similar role in tomorrow's computer science research, developing critical enabling technologies to support future missions. 2 To play that role, NASA Ames Research Center has recently changed its research focus to computer science (see Figure 1).