Charting a Course for the Cloud

When the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is deployed into space in late 2026, it will begin a chapter of exciting science—a continuation of an epic story that began on the ground. Since the late 2010s, the Space Telescope Science Institute and our partners have been collaborating to establish a strong, responsive software system for Roman. This year, the institute released its initial Science Operations Center software. Roman team members Ariel Bowers, Harry Ferguson, and Samantha Hoffmann discuss the importance of bolstering Roman’s software system, its unique mission challenges, and ways they’ve been able to leverage other missions’ systems.  

How extensive is Roman’s Science Operations Center software system? 

Ariel Bowers: There are three parts: the planning and scheduling subsystem, the data management subsystem, and the project reference database. The planning and scheduling subsystem is the front end, where astronomers will plan their observations. It’s also where we create files to send to our partners at the Mission Operations Center at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to communicate with the observatory, like directing Roman where to point and how long to observe. The data management subsystem can be considered the back end, where data processing, archiving, analysis, and exchanging data with our partners at the Science Support Center at IPAC at Caltech take place. Both of these subsystems pull from our third subsystem, the project reference database, which ensures that all of the files are configured and consistent internally and externally.  

Samantha Hoffmann: Roman is a survey mission, so it will return a lot of data. Its images will be 200 times the size of those from the Hubble Space Telescope’s near-infrared camera. We’ve simulated Roman data to test our software, which provides us the opportunity to confirm every step works as designed. Simulating data is a normal step. Teams at the institute also ran simulated data through Webb’s software before it launched. 

How have other flagship missions, like Hubble and Webb, played a part in shaping Roman’s software system? 

Bowers: Hubble and Webb’s existing systems meant we didn’t need to start from scratch. About 200 people at the institute contribute to the Roman mission right now, and they all have deep expertise about the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes’ systems. That gave us a great foundation. For example, we found similarities between Webb and Roman that allowed us to adapt and enhance many areas of Webb’s software to meet Roman’s science goals. 

Harry Ferguson: The biggest place where we leveraged Webb’s software system for Roman was the basic calibration process, which removes artifacts from its instruments that appear in its images. Roman’s detectors are almost identical to those on Webb’s Near-infrared Camera, so we used the same steps. We also applied lessons we learned during Webb’s first two years of calibration. Those time savings allowed us to focus on supporting Roman’s surveys, learning how we can take raw images of a big swath of the sky and turn them into files that astronomers can easily explore and analyze.  

Roman will also benefit from Webb’s ongoing software updates. Each time an update is released, we will transfer what applies to Roman to our files so we can spend more time focusing on what this observatory uniquely does: vast surveys. 

Hoffmann: Some of the software that was designed originally for Hubble was modernized for Webb and is now being used for the Roman mission. For example, Drizzle software combines images to make the beautiful mosaics that Hubble is well-known for. Because Roman will be observing large patches of the sky, Drizzle has to be finessed to define smaller areas, which we call cells. With Roman’s software, scientists will be able to select a cell, and examine the crisp image along with all of the relevant data gathered by the telescope.  

In what ways is the Roman software system unique?  

Hoffmann: We've never had a system where astronomers will go to the cloud to interact with the data. With other telescopes, astronomers can download the data to their own personal systems and run their analyses. In Roman’s case, it will have such large amounts of data that it will be impractical to download them. Roman’s software will allow scientists to run their processes in the cloud, like reprocessing the data with their own algorithm. The platform will also connect to other products astronomers need to do their research. 

How important is input from the science community, and how is it continuing to play a role in shaping the software system? 

Ferguson: Input from the science community is incredibly important. I chair the Software Working Group, which is one way we can gather advice. Hundreds of algorithms exist to complete the same science goal, and none of them are perfect. We have to choose which one to use. Input from the community will help us make an informed decision. 

The community will also contribute to decisions about data management and how the software runs—among many other details. Many researchers in the astronomy community have experience with other survey missions, so they understand what is needed to make Roman’s surveys useful.  

The community is also planning a variety of data challenges to test strategies for analyzing and interpreting Roman data. These will be excellent tests for Roman’s software systems. These challenges will enable participants to work with simulated data, provide feedback, and ultimately bolster community engagement before Roman launches. 
 
Bowers: We want these teams to work with us as we develop Roman’s software systems so we can implement enhancements, whether it’s before or after launch. We want to make sure we’re doing right by the science community. 

What’s to come in 2024 and beyond? 

Bowers: Broadly speaking, we’ll want to focus on our cloud-based software implementation, from processing and archiving data to how we collaborate and work with our partners. We will have another software release in June 2024. Meanwhile, we’ll be bringing more operations staff into the fold, getting them up to speed, and making sure that they're part of our continuing development efforts. From Roman’s Science Operations Center perspective, I think 2024 will be a great year with contributions from our internal teams and the astronomical community.