A Space Data Archival And Retrieval System Using Optical Storage Technology
Kenneth R. Wallgren · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1983
The development of a data capture and retrieval facility as a technology demonstration for future NASA data systems is described. The archival storage subsystem is a multi-disk optical recorder/reproducer under joint development by the U.S. Air Force (Rome Air Development Center) and NASA. This paper describes the application of the optical disk in the context of a data base management system which automatically constructs catalogs of incoming sensor data sets, and supports on line browsing and queries for data sets fulfilling search criteria specified by users. Data sets which satisfy user queries can be requested for immediate delivery to the user via a network of computers linked by communications services. The paper describes a solution to problems associated with interfacing the high speed storage subsystem (50M bit/sec.) to computers with inherently lower I/O bandwidths.