The NASA Office of Inspector General recently called out the space agency the for the “disjointed” way it has organized and managed its high-end computing, or HEC, capabilities.
Unless “key changes” are implemented, NASA’s HEC resources will likely hinder rather than enable future mission priorities, the OIG said in an audit report released Thursday.
The audit found that NASA’s HEC capabilities are overseen by a single scientist within the Earth Science Research Program at the Science Mission Directorate. This scientist is responsible for HEC capabilities at two separate facilities — the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Ames Research Center — while concurrently handling Earth science duties.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer is not directly involved in governing HEC resources.
The OIG says that due, in part, to this mode of organization, NASA is unable to keep up with technological developments and computing requirements, resulting in its existing HEC resources being overburdened. Consequently, various teams across the agency have expressed hesitation to use the HEC resources at all, while others have opted to acquire and manage their own HEC tools, an approach that has cybersecurity repercussions.
To resolve these problems, the OIG recommended that NASA appoint a leader who will “determine the appropriate definition, scope, ownership, organizational placement, and structure” of the agency’s HEC capabilities. The inspector general also called for, among other things, the identification of technology gaps, the development of a strategy for HEC resource allocation and an inventory of HEC assets across the agency.
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