Success Story: NASA Langley

In 2003, NASA Langley focused on the upcoming MER Spirit landing, scheduled for January 3, 2004. Langley was responsible for multiple aspects of the MER project, including analysis of Spirit's entry, descent and landing data. Researchers at NASA Langley would have only weeks to assess the data, then determine and test potential changes before providing their recommendation to the flight software coders. The results of the analysis could then be used to adjust Opportunity's entry, increasing its chances of success.

Prasun Desai, Langley's MER project lead, saw that the analysis would require facilities to store and protect a large volume of data. He assessed the research group's backup system, and realized that its current hardware was not up to the task of protecting the valuable data that would be traveling from Mars to Langley in early January. NASA Langley needed a centralized tape library that offered high-speed backups, large expansion capacity, and small footprint.

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