Sun Microsystems of Canada has joined the da Vinci Project, a space project in Canada to launch a manned rocket into space. Sun is one of the project's official technology product partners and will provide hardware and network cluster tools for design simulation and virtual prototyping, according to a news report by globetechnology.com.

"At Sun, we have 21 years of relentless innovation under our belts," Sun Canada president said Stephane Boisvert said. "Our role in supporting the da Vinci Project is another example of our commitment to incubate and showcase new applications that utilize proven technologies, including those that take advantage of networking and integrated software solutions."

The project is taking place in a town near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. The project is Canada's entry into an international contest, the X Prize competition, designed to encourage commercial manned space flights. The da Vinci engineering team is based at da Vinci Polytechnic Institute in Toronto, another one of the project's sponsors.

According to the report "Sun's tools will power applications such as Finite Element Analysis and Computational Fluid Dynamics, important processes in substantially reducing engineering costs and improving time-to-market for aerospace designers and engineers. Sun's technology will be used to reduce the time needed to run stress tests on the spacecraft, solve complex analytics problems, and enhance graphics that enable the team to visualize how design changes affect the design of the spacecraft before construction even begins."

"This sponsorship allows direct integrated analysis of the flight hardware during the preliminary design phase, thus reducing product development phase down to six months while cutting product development costs by several-million dollars," said Dr. Vladimir Kudriavtsev, head of da Vinci engineering team.

"Not only has Sun equipped us with the world's best-in-class technology, they have positioned us to build our spacecraft from design to final-stage testing and performance validation," said Brian Feeney, project team leader.

"We are delighted that Sun Microsystems of Canada has shown vision and foresight in becoming a sponsor of the da Vinci Project," said Dr. Peter Diamandis, X Prize Foundation chairman. [...read more...]

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