Briefs

Data mining and probabilistic risk assessment will help improve safety, experts say.

By Laurie Sullivan, TechWeb News, Jan 30, 2006 07:34 PM

Three years after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated above Texas on reentry Feb. 1, scientists are looking more closely at advanced predictive analysis software to ensure a similar disaster doesn�t occur again.

Science Applications International Corp. on Monday said it is developing Fourier analysis to integrate with Insightful Corp.'s data mining analytics tool Insightful Miner 7. "Since Challenger, and even Columbia, we now have more advanced safety methods and the ability to look for different kinds of data," said Travis Moebes, senior scientist for Science Applications. "Two analysis tools we use today that weren't around before are data mining and probabilistic risk assessment."

Moebes's technical team, which provides the National Aeronautics and Space Administration with IT and analysis support, is responsible for data management. It mines and analyzes data to support safety for NASA�s Shuttle, Space Station and other spaceship programs using science and statistical methods.

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