April 6 — The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center plans to procure services to support the advanced computing services provided by NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) Division, Ames Research Center (ARC), located in Moffett Field, California. There could also be support at other NASA Centers during the performance period of the contract. Currently, the primary advanced computing service provided by NAS is high performance computing (HPC, also known as supercomputing, high end computing, or HEC). Other areas of advanced computing (including data-intensive, collaborative, and quantum computing) are increasingly important NAS services. NAS also conducts NASA mission-driven science and engineering using these advanced computing services. All of these are within the scope of NACS.

NASA’s challenging mission to explore space and understand the universe and the Earth within it requires the Agency to innovatively apply and extend humankind’s most advanced capabilities, technologies, and knowledge. Advanced computing, including high-end, data-intensive, collaborative, and quantum computing, as well as scientific and engineering applications utilizing these, may be unrivaled in its breadth of applicability and impact across NASA’s mission. As the primary provider of these advanced computing services, NAS plays a critical role in enabling NASA mission success across every mission area—Earth and space science, aeronautics research, space exploration, and supporting technology development.

NAS’ mission is “To support NASA’s Mission to advance science, technology, aeronautics, and space exploration through the power of advanced computing and high fidelity modeling and simulation.” In support of this mission, NAS:

• Maintains and operates the NAS facility, including world-class production supercomputing systems, data storage, local and wide area networking, and 24×7 user services;
• Develops and applies advanced computational technologies and services, such as application performance optimization, system and user productivity tools, and data analysis and visualization;
• Serves as the Agency pathfinder by evaluating and implementing advanced computing technologies; and
• Develops mission-driven engineering and scientific models, numerical methods and algorithms, and simulation tools, and applies them in high-fidelity simulations in support of NASA’s mission.

Advanced computing is the assimilation of the most advanced computing systems, large-scale data storage, and high-speed networking technologies, the capabilities of which have increased exponentially for decades, into a leading-edge integrated tool set for NASA science and engineering. When combined with sophisticated systems software and state of the art specialized applications, advanced computing provides the premier environment for enabling advances in NASA’s challenging missions and solving NASA’s complex problems in various science and engineering domains. As a result, advanced computing provides broad support for NASA’s greatest achievements, including high-fidelity modeling to design and improve aerospace vehicles, analysis of massive Earth observation data to predict potential near-term and long-term futures of our planet, and detailed astrophysical simulations and data analysis to understand the history and future of our universe, and our place within it.

In addition to managing the lifecycle of advanced computing systems, NAS provides a comprehensive and integrated set of services designed to solve any user challenges and to help users be maximally productive with these systems. These services include 24×7 user support and helpdesk, application and workflow debugging and enhancement, data storage and management, data analysis and visualization, end-to-end network optimization, and system environment customization. Additional essential services in support of NAS operations include facility operations, IT security, and publications and media services. With these services, it is NAS’ goal to enable NASA’s advanced computing enabled projects to achieve dramatic and rapid advances in scientific and engineering insight.

NASA currently operates two major HPC facilities. The NAS Division at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, operates NASA’s primary HPC facility, with users broadly distributed across all NASA mission areas, most NASA Centers, and numerous partner organizations (universities, corporations and other organizations performing work for or with NASA). NASA’s second major HPC facility is the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with users primarily supporting NASA Earth science.

The current NASA Supercomputing Support Services (NS3) Contract NNA07CA29C has the following features:

1) Period of Performance: August 1, 2007 through July 31, 2017, if all options are exercised.

2) Contract Type: Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF).

3) The contract was awarded under Full and Open Competition.

4) The current value of the contract is approximately $597M.