Software gets Nasa back to the moon and Mars

Nasa has launched a software system to help its scientists work together more effectively as they design and build vehicles for the agency's Constellation Program - George Bush's brainchild to get the US back to the moon and to Mars.

When a design document is produced in the new system, it is passed between 1,800 Nasa scientists and engineers who can add comments and suggestions to the design.

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Matt Leonard, chief of Nasa's lunar surface systems office, told silicon.com: "It gave us an electronic avenue for processing these comments."

Leonard said the new online tool, developed by Vignette, makes it easy to pull up a design document on a screen, look through it, click on a comment, add your own advice and then forward it through to the next stages.

Once everyone has had a chance to voice their opinions, the design documents - with any additional comments - are passed to a board of 10 scientists who decide whether to incorporate any of the comments.

The system has helped monitor the review process for 93 documents and is set to be used in the programme's next review.

The Vignette software replaced Nasa's previous paper-based process, which was slow and error-prone.

Leonard said workers used to get tired of having to go through so many pieces of paper and thus made mistakes - but the online system makes sure the design documents are reviewed and tracked appropriately.

He added: "It's something that we will be continuing to use and evolve as the programme matures for all of the design reviews."