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Draft for review. This page is under review before the Operational Readiness Review. Panels marked as open questions are still waiting for an answer. Send corrections to the Research Platform team.

Status: The Research Platform is live and fully supported as of August 15, 2026. Our team continuously updates the platform with new features and improvements.

The Bottom Line:

The Research Platform is a ready-to-use cloud workspace for science computing. You access it through your web browser at rp.sciencecloud.nasa.gov using your standard Science Cloud login. There is nothing to install.

When you log in, you get a personal notebook workspace—a single web page where you can write code, process large amounts of data, view charts, and use AI tools.

Easy sharing: Your files save automatically, and you can easily share data with your team.
Power on demand: You don't need to buy or maintain hardware. If a job is too big, the platform gives you more computing power.
Cost control: When you finish working, the machines turn off, and you stop paying immediately.

Who can use the Research Platform?

Any Science Mission Directorate (SMD)-funded project can use the Research Platform. To get started, a project admin requests a workspace. Once approved, they can add their team members. See How to get access.

Why use the Research Platform?

Previously, science teams had to manage their own computing environments. The Research Platform handles the heavy lifting for you:

The Old Way	On the Research Platform
Request cloud accounts and build servers	Log in and start working in minutes
Install Python, libraries, and drivers by hand	Essential science software is pre-installed
Copy data files between laptops	Keep data in shared team storage with secure access rules
Guess what the computing costs will be	Track your usage and remaining budget in real time
Buy expensive machines for temporary big jobs	Get more computing power instantly, only when you need it
Set up your own AI tools and API keys	Approved AI assistants are built right in

What's included in the Research Platform?

Personal workspace: Private file storage with essential science software pre-installed.
Flexible power: Choose how much memory you need (from 4 GB up to 64 GB) every time you start.
Shared team storage: Secure folders visible only to your project members.
Power on demand: Spread a single massive job across multiple machines when needed.
Background processing: Set a long notebook to run on its own while you work on other tasks.
Real-time collaboration: Edit the same notebook at the exact same time as your teammates.
Built-in AI: Use an in-workspace AI assistant and access a catalog of approved tools.
Clear budgets: Always know what you've spent and what's left in the project budget.

Want to learn more? You can read the detailed guide for each feature, or jump right in with How to use the platform.

Who runs it, and who pays

A project admin (the person who runs a research project and its money) asks for a project, and adds members.
The platform team runs the service, keeps it secure, and reports the cost.
The project pays for what its members use. See How you pay for it.

The four parts (plain names)

You will hear these four names. You only touch the first one day to day.

Name	What it is for you
Research Platform	The workspace you open in your browser. This is where you work.
RPAdmin	The admin console. Project admins use it for members and budgets.
STAR	The login service. It checks who you are, one time, for everything.
AI Registry and Gateway	The catalog and front door for approved AI tools.

What data you can put on it

The Research Platform is FISMA Low today. FISMA is the US law that sets the security level for federal systems. "Low" is the level for data where a security problem would have only a limited effect.

So: put only FISMA Low data on the platform today. Do not put data that needs a higher level of protection.

The team is working to offer FISMA Moderate and ITAR support in the future. (ITAR is the US rule for export-controlled defense-related data.) When that work is finished, this page will say so.

Where to go next

You want to…	Go to
Know what works today, and what is coming	Capabilities and roadmap
Get an account	How to get access
Start working	How to use the platform
Get help	Email `support@sciencecloud.nasa.gov`