Beyond incremental change

In the next 25 years NASA has ambitious goals: it wants to accurately predict climate and resources over decades, not just days. It wants to detect Earth-sized planets 600 trillion miles away with a telescope powerful enough to determine signs of life. It wants to use the International Space Station as a platform for an astronaut to visit Mars. This is the big vision, and to many it may sound more like science fiction. To help achieve these goals, in 1997 NASA and the University of Virginia's Center for Advanced Computational Technology began planning and developing the Intelligent Synthesis Environment. The ISE aims to link scientists, design teams, manufacturers, suppliers, and consultants in the creation and operation of an aerospace system and in synthesizing its missions. The ultimate goal is to significantly increase creativity and knowledge and eventually dissolve rigid cultural boundaries among diverse engineering and science teams.