• It provides visual analyses of many types of data in many different formats.
• It can operate in client-only or client-server mode.
• It supports a mixed computing environment such as the NASA Ames Columbia supercomputer cluster and Apple Macintosh desktop clients.
• It supports remote collaboration.
• It enables easy output to rich media, including file formats that can be run in QuickTime and edited in Final Cut Pro on the Mac.
• It allows NASA Ames to leverage the large EnSight user base already established within NASA, DoD and DoE.
• It provides an open, high-performance file format for all types of CFD and structural analysis.

Parallel-server and client-server functionality within EnSight Gold is also important to NASA Ames. Parallel-server functionality provides interactive access to multiple CPUs that speed visualization for compute-intensive problems or problems involving a large number of datasets. Client-server mode allows NASA Ames to take advantage of large compute platforms to provide fast display for remote users doing visualization on a Mac or Linux system.

The first EnSight Gold project for NASA Ames is visualizing time-dependent analyses of debris trajectory as part of the Return to Flight initiative. In the near future, NASA Ames plans to use EnSight Gold in development of the Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), designed to deliver the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to low-Earth orbit early next decade, and the shuttle-derived heavy-lift launcher.