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NASA imaging technology has provided the basis for a commercial agricultural reconnaissance service. AG-RECON furnishes information from airborne sensors, aerial photographs and satellite and ground databases to farmers, foresters, geologists, etc. This service produces color "maps" of Earth conditions, which enable clients to detect crop color changes or temperature changes that may indicate fire damage or pest stress problems.
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) hold great promise for a new era of specialized missions, including personal air transportation, cargo flight operations, aerial surveys, inspections, firefighting and more. The anticipated market growth is significant. To unlock its scalability and incumbent benefits requires a human to oversee multiple flights simultaneously, focusing on multi-vehicle mission management and relinquishing to autonomous systems their active role in controlling the aircrafts’ flight paths. Key to the realization of these scalability benefits is minimally-encumbered access to the National Airspace System (NAS), which poses some unique challenges for self-piloted UAS aircraft operations. These include the requirement for compatibility with existing airspace structures and operations including Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), neither of which were developed to accommodate the unique needs and capabilities of UAS. This paper explores the applicability of Digital Flight to the operations of self-piloted UAS. As proposed by NASA, Digital Flight is a flight operations capability, enabled by a set of cooperative procedures and digital technologies, in which flight operators ensure flight-path safety through automated separation and flight path management in lieu of visual procedures and Air Traffic Control separation services. Flights operating under potentially-forthcoming rules of Digital Flight employ advanced automation technologies, information sharing, connectivity to operational data, and cooperative behaviors through distributed decision-making to maintain safety and achieve mission objectives. Designed for integration with VFR and IFR operations in shared NAS airspace, potentially as a third set of flight rules, Digital Flight may provide the mechanism for UAS operators – and all aircraft operators – to scale and diversify their operations beyond what is achievable under current regulations.
The following topics were discussed: (1) data availability and distribution, (2) complete processing systems, (3) subsystems, (4) applications, (5) research for future technology, and (6) education, training opportunities, and materials. Evidence was given that remote sensing technology is being increasingly utilized. Therefore, it was concluded that a second stage of remote sensing technology should be developed.
NASA’s Digital Information Platform is creating a digital information ecosystem to exchange services and provide access to airspace information to enable fuel efficient operations. This system allows providers to make their services more accessible and consumers to access information and services they need to optimize their operations. In this video we will focus on the Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting service, which provides airlines with routing options similar to how drivers navigate using cellphone apps.
NASA Earth Sciences Division (ESD) has made great investments in the development and maintenance of data management systems and information technologies, to maximize the use of NASA generated Earth science data. With information management system infrastructure in place, mature and operational, very small delta costs are required to fully support data archival, processing, and data support services required by the recommended Decadal Study missions. This presentation describes the services and capabilities of the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) and the reusability for these future missions. The GES DISC has developed a series of modular, reusable data management components currently in use. They include data archive and distribution (Simple, Scalable, Script-based, Science [S4] Product Archive aka S4PA), data processing (S4 Processor for Measurements aka S4PM), data search (Mirador), data browse, visualization, and analysis (Giovanni), and data mining services. Information management system components are based on atmospheric scientist inputs. Large development and maintenance cost savings can be realized through their reuse in future missions.
NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is responsible for the Advanced Communications for Air Traffic Management (AC/ATM) Project, a sub-element task of the Advanced Air Transportation Technologies (AATT) Project of the NASA Aviation System Capacity Program (ASC). The AC/ATM Project is developing new communications technologies and tools that will improve throughput in the U.S. Air Traffic Control System. The goal of the AC/ATM Project is to enable a communications infrastructure providing the capacity, efficiency, and flexibility necessary to realize benefits of the future mature Free-Flight environment. The capabilities and scope of communications technologies needed to accomplish this goal depend on characteristics of the future Free-Flight environment. There are many operational concepts being proposed for a future ATM system to enable user flexibility and efficiency. GRC s focus is on developing new technologies and techniques to support the digital communication of information involving airborne and ground-based users. However, the technologies and techniques must be integrated with the systems and services that industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are developing. Thus, GRC needs to monitor and provide input to the various industry and FAA organizations and committees that are specifying new systems and services. Adoption of technologies by the FAA is partially dependent on acceptance of the technology by the aviation community. The commercial aviation community in particular would like to adopt technologies that can be used throughout the world. As a result, the adoption of common or at least compatible technologies by European countries is a key factor in getting commitments to those technologies by the US aviation community. GRC desires to keep informed of European activities that relate to aviation communication technologies, particularly those that are being supported by Eurocontrol.
As the grid evolves, the communications architecture will need to evolve with it. That architecture affords a structured means by which the evolving complexities of the modern electric grid can be managed. This document provides best practices that can be implemented in the grid of today and evolve towards the grid and grid architecture of the future. The evolving grid and its control communications increasingly rely on commercial communications providers and a variety of technologies, from wireless (e.g., 5G, microwave, Wi-Fi) to wireline (fiber, copper) to radio communications (P25, other repeater-based systems), and all these communications systems rely on electric power. A reliable and resilient grid must account for this complex set of interdependencies in its planning activities, especially those involving restoration and recovery. The participation of all relevant parties in both planning and exercising of plans can prevent unexpected conditions that impede the reliable operation and recovery of the grid. Best practices for grid communications include using a Network Management System to document the operational state, define and monitor baselines, detect changes, and accelerate response to abnormalities. If transitioning from SONET to IP/packet-based systems, translating grid requirements into communications requirements for latency, bandwidth and throughput, IP packet delay variation, packet loss, and availability should inform and drive technology planning and selection as well as that communication system’s Quality of Service (QoS) policies and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Secure and reliable timing is another key component of a reliable and resilient grid that can operate through adverse events. A trusted internal NTP configuration, an integrated and diverse timing delivery system, optimizing the timing architecture based on the transport technologies of the communications system, and using established standards can deliver the level of timing accuracy required by a range of time-sensitive power system applications.
Results are reported from pilot surveys on the use of scientific and technical information (STI) by U.S. and NATO-nation aerospace scientists and engineers, undertaken as part of the NASA/DOD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. The survey procedures and the demographic characteristics of the 67 scientists and engineers who responded to the survey are summarized, and the results are presented in a series of tables and discussed in detail. Findings emphasized include: (1) both U.S. and NATO respondents spend around 60 percent of their work week producing or using STI products; (2) NATO respondents are more likely than their U.S. counterparts to use 'formal' STI products (like technical reports and papers) and the services of librarians and online data bases; (3) most of the respondents use computers and information technology in preparing STI products; and (4) respondents who had taken courses in technical communication agreed on the value and ideal subject matter of such courses.
NASA Headquarters maintains a continuing interest in and commitment to exploring the use of new technology to support productivity improvements in meeting service requirements tasked to the NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Facility, and to support cost effective approaches to the development and delivery of enhanced levels of service provided by the STI Facility. The DDS project has been pursued with this interest and commitment in mind. It is believed that DDS will provide improved archival blowback quality and service for ad hoc requests for paper copies of documents archived and serviced centrally at the STI Facility. It will also develop an operating capability to scan, digitize, store, and reproduce paper copies of 5000 NASA technical reports archived annually at the STI Facility and serviced to the user community. Additionally, it will provide NASA Headquarters and field installations with on-demand, remote, electronic retrieval of digitized, bilevel, bit mapped report images along with branched, nonsequential retrieval of report subparts.
Digital Information Platform Sub-Project under ATM-X is having a virtual information session to share response summary for the Request for Information (Notice ID: NARC21DIP-RFI). The purpose of this session is to share the valuable inputs from the RFI responses on data & service needs for airspace operations, recommended use cases for DIP collaborative demos, and potential data and technology services that can be provided by the DIP platform through NASA-industry collaboration.
Weather is a contributing factor in approximately 25-30 percent of general aviation accidents. The lack of timely, accurate and usable weather information to the general aviation pilot in the cockpit to enhance pilot situational awareness and improve pilot judgment remains a major impediment to improving aviation safety. NASA Glenn Research Center commissioned this 120 day weather datalink market survey to assess the technologies, infrastructure, products, and services of commercial avionics systems being marketed to the general aviation community to address these longstanding safety concerns. A market survey of companies providing or proposing to provide graphical weather information to the general aviation cockpit was conducted. Fifteen commercial companies were surveyed. These systems are characterized and evaluated in this report by availability, end-user pricing/cost, system constraints/limits and technical specifications. An analysis of market survey results and an evaluation of product offerings were made. In addition, recommendations to NASA for additional research and technology development investment have been made as a result of this survey to accelerate deployment of cockpit weather information systems for enhancing aviation safety.
Airspace Technology Demonstration #3 (ATD-3) is part of NASA's Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) - specifically, its Airspace Technology Demonstrations (ATD) Project. ATD-3 is a multiyear research and development effort which proposes to develop and demonstrate automation technologies and operating concepts that enable air navigation service providers and airspace users to continuously assess weather, winds, traffic, and other information to identify, evaluate, and implement workable opportunities for flight plan route corrections that can result in significant flight time and fuel savings in en route airspace. In order to ensure that the products of this tech-transfer are relevant and useful, NASA has created strong partnerships with the FAA and key industry stakeholders. This summary document and accompanying technology artifacts satisfy the first of three Research Transition Products (RTPs) defined in the Applied Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Research Transition Team (RTT) Plan. This transfer consists of NASA's legacy Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) work for efficient routing for en-route weather avoidance. DWR is a ground-based trajectory automation system that continuously and automatically analyzes active airborne aircraft in en route airspace to identify opportunities for simple corrections to flight plan routes that can save significant flying time, at least five minutes wind-corrected, while avoiding weather and considering traffic conflicts, airspace sector congestion, special use airspace, and FAA routing restrictions. The key benefit of the DWR concept is to let automation continuously and automatically analyze active flights to find those where simple route corrections can save significant time and fuel. Operators are busy during weather events. It is more effective to let automation find the opportunities for high-value route corrections.
Airspace Technology Demonstration – 3 (ATD-3) is part of NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) – specifically, its Airspace Technology Demonstrations (ATD) Project. ATD-3 is a multi-year research and development effort which proposes to develop and demonstrate automation technologies and operating concepts that enable air navigation service providers and airspace users to continuously assess weather, winds, traffic, and other information to identify, evaluate, and implement workable opportunities for flight plan route corrections that can result in significant flight time and fuel savings in en route airspace. In order to ensure that the products of this tech-transfer are relevant and useful, NASA has created strong partnerships with the FAA and key industry stakeholders. This summary document and accompanying technology artifacts satisfy the third of three Research Transition Products (RTPs) defined in the Applied Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Research Transition Team (RTT) Plan. This transfer consists of NASA’s Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in Weather (DRAW) –Arrival Metering Operations. This research enables continued use of arrival metering operations while efficiently rerouting traffic in weather
Airspace Technology Demonstration – 3 (ATD-3) is part of NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) – specifically, its Airspace Technology Demonstrations (ATD) Project. ATD-3 is a multi-year research and development effort which proposes to develop and demonstrate automation technologies and operating concepts that enable air navigation service providers and airspace users to continuously assess weather, winds, traffic, and other information to identify, evaluate, and implement workable opportunities for flight plan route corrections that can result in significant flight time and fuel savings in en route airspace. In order to ensure that the products of this tech-transfer are relevant and useful, NASA has created strong partnerships with the FAA and key industry stakeholders. This summary document and accompanying technology artifacts satisfy the third Research Transition Product (RTP) defined in the Applied Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Research Transition Team (RTT) Plan, which is Dynamic Routes for Arrivals in Weather (DRAW). This technology transfer consists of artifacts for DRAW Arrival Metering (AM) Operations delivered in June 2018, DRAW AM updates, and DRAW Extended Metering (XM) Operations. Blue highlighting indicates the new or modified deliverables. Some of the artifacts in this technology transfer have distribution restrictions that need to be followed. Distribution information is noted in each section. DRAW is a trajectory-based system that combines the legacy Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) weather avoidance technology with an arrival-specific rerouting algorithm and arrival scheduler to improve traffic flows on weather-impacted arrival routes into major airports. First, DRAW identifies flights that could be rerouted to more efficient Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs) that may have previously been impacted by weather. Second, when weather is impacting the arrival routing, DRAW proposes simple arrival route corrections that enable aircraft to stay on their flight plan while avoiding weather. The DRAW system proposes reroutes early enough to allow Time Based Flow Management (TBFM) to make the necessary schedule adjustments. As a result, metering operations can be sustained longer and more consistently in the presence of weather because the arrival schedule accounts for the dynamic routing intent of arrival flights to deviate around weather. The first DRAW tech transfer in June 2018 focused on arrival metering operations with the DRAW algorithm implemented in the NASA Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) automation software. This tech transfer delivery includes updates for DRAW implemented in FAA’s TBFM 4.7 automation software and preliminary research into DRAW for XM operations.
Airspace Technology Demonstration - 3 (ATD-3) is part of NASA's Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) - specifically, its Airspace Technology Demonstrations (ATD) Project. ATD-3 is a multi-year research and development effort which proposes to develop and demonstrate automation technologies and operating concepts that enable air navigation service providers and airspace users to continuously assess weather, winds, traffic, and other information to identify, evaluate, and implement workable opportunities for flight plan route corrections that can result in significant flight time and fuel savings in en-route airspace. In order to ensure that the products of this tech-transfer are relevant and useful, NASA has created strong partnerships with the FAA and key industry stakeholders. This summary document and accompanying technology artifacts satisfy the second of three Research Transition Products (RTPs) defined in the Applied Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) Research Transition Team (RTT) Plan. The original transfer, completed in December 2017, consisted of NASA's Multi-Flight Common Route (MFCR) research for efficient route corrections for en-route weather avoidance. This transfer updates the Concept of Operations document to a publicly-available NASA Technical Memorandum. The MFCR concept builds on the experience of the legacy Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) and focuses on a better balance of potential savings with ATC acceptability, common route corrections options for multiple flights on similar routings, and better use of existing and/or modern automation for communication and coordination of route change options. All of these capabilities are expected to improve system performance significantly in terms of actual delay-reducing clearances issued to flights compared to that of the DWR tool and operating concept.
The combination of increased electric load growth across all sectors, deferred electrical infrastructure investment, and other factors resulting in variable electric power supply, has created technical challenges to maintaining a resilient and reliable grid. Many federal, regional, and local efforts are in play to modernize the electric grid, including advancing building technologies and distributed energy resources (DERs) that are utilizing smarter controls to become responsive to both occupant and grid needs. This report reviews ten pilot projects demonstrating how groups of buildings combined with behind-the-meter (BTM) DERs such as electric vehicle (EV) charging, battery storage, flexible HVAC and domestic hot water systems, and photovoltaic systems can reliably and cost effectively provide grid services. Each of the ten pilot projects aim to deliver both energy efficiency and demand flexibility (DF) while supporting load growth. The ten demonstration teams are piloting flexible DER packages across diverse communities of residential and commercial buildings to address a variety of regional grid needs. The outcomes of these pilot projects will be used to inform future scaling through utility program development. This paper characterizes the ten teams, showcasing the decision-making process used by each group to develop their packages (Section 2), the grid services they plan to deliver (Section 3), the types of DER packages selected for deployment within building sectors (Section 4) and trends between building sector, DER types, and grid services In order to achieve community scale benefits, the pilot projects must utilize aggregated control mechanisms for coordinating buildings and DERs together. Several types of coordinated control architectures have evolved amongst the teams, influenced by use type, existing market conditions, and integration type. Three coordinated controls architectures have been characterized, highlighting their use cases, benefits, challenges, and tradeoffs in their design. These insights can aid utilities, control vendors, and developers in scaling community-level energy systems (Paul, 2024). Ultimately, the technology packages selected by the ten teams will be coordinated to provide power system services, also known as grid services. Insights from these demonstrations will be useful for grid operators, regulators, aggregators and other stakeholders as they look to deploy demand flexible resources as grid services in the future. The grid services that each team is targeting for demonstration are described in Section 3 and Section 4. Methods for evaluating the grid services have been described in the paper Metrics for Evaluating Grid Service Provision from Communities of Grid-interactive and Efficient Buildings and other DER (MacDonald, 2023). To identify technology packages for demonstration, Section 2 shows that project teams used a range of analysis approaches, including building energy modeling, AMI data analysis, cost-benefit frameworks, and utility pilot data. Some teams emphasized technical modeling to quantify grid impacts and demand reduction potential, while others prioritized economic evaluations, stakeholder input, or exploratory pilots to inform deployment decisions. This diversity reflects the need to tailor selection methods to project goals, available data, and organizational context. Section 5 discusses trends between the DER technologies deployed and the grid service provisions from each team. Residential buildings (multifamily and single family) lean towards technologies that enhance energy efficiency (e.g. weatherization upgrades, smart thermostats) and onsite power generation integration (e.g. solar PV). Commercial building demonstrations prioritize technologies that ensure operational reliability (e.g. battery storage) and centralized energy management systems and optimization solutions. Teams that are deploying controllable storage-based technologies are more likely to provide grid services that require a near real-time response. Teams incorporating load shifting technologies like smart thermostats with HEMs are likely to include energy markets participation and customer bill management offerings. Campus demonstrations are adopting diverse sets of DERs to emphasize renewable generation, paired with centralized control. This section also describes technologies that were considered during project planning but ultimately excluded from final deployment. These demonstrations reveal that effective DER package design should be tailored to building type, customer segment, and construction vintage. Multifamily buildings benefit from centralized HVAC upgrades and supervisory controls, while single-family homes are well-suited for individualized technologies like solar, storage, and smart home energy monitors. Commercial and campus settings prioritize EMIS integration and load optimization. New construction enables cost-effective integration of DER-ready infrastructure, whereas retrofits require deployments aligned with owner and tenant value streams. For utility program planners, early coordination with developers and building owners, paired with segmented and modular program offerings, can improve adoption, scalability, and grid impact.
The rapid changes in our world precipitated by technology have created new problems and new challenges for education and training. A knowledge 'explosion' is occurring as our society moves toward a service oriented economy that relies on information as the major resource. Complex computer systems are beginning to dominate the workplace, causing alarming growth and change in many fields. The rapidly changing nature of the workplace, especially in fields related to information technology, requires that our knowledge be updated constantly. This characteristic of modern society poses seemingly unsolvable instructional problems involving coverage and obsolescence. The sheer amount of information to be learned is rapidly increasing, while at the same time some information becomes obsolete in light of new information. Education, therefore, must become a lifelong process that features learning of new material and skills as needed in relation to the job to be done. Because of the problems cited above, the current model of learning in advance may no longer be feasible in our high-technology world. In many cases, learning in advance is impossible because there are simply too many things to learn. In addition, learning in advance can be time consuming, and often results in decontextualized knowledge that does not readily transfer to the work environment. The large and growing discrepancy between the amount of potentially relevant knowledge available and the amount a person can know and remember makes learning on demand an important alternative to current instructional practices. Learning on demand takes place whenever an individual must learn something new in order to perform a task or make a decision. Learning on demand is a promising approach for addressing the problems of coverage and obsolescence because learning is contextualized and integrated into the task environment rather than being relegated to a separate phase that precedes work. Learning on demand allows learners to see for themselves the usefulness of new knowledge for actual problem situations, thereby increasing the motivation for learning new information. Finally, learning on demand makes new information relevant to the task at hand, leading to more informed decision making, better quality products, and improved performance.
Interdisciplinary research in needs analysis, communications technology studies, and systems synthesis is reported. Existing and planned educational telecommunications services are studied and library utilization of telecommunications is described. Preliminary estimates are presented of ranges of utilization of educational telecommunications services for 1975 and 1985; instructional and public television, computer-aided instruction, computing resources, and information resource sharing for various educational levels and purposes. Communications technology studies include transmission schemes for still-picture television, use of Gunn effect devices, and TV receiver front ends for direct satellite reception at 12 GHz. Two major studies in the systems synthesis project concern (1) organizational and administrative aspects of a large-scale instructional satellite system to be used with schools and (2) an analysis of future development of instructional television, with emphasis on the use of video tape recorders and cable television. A communications satellite system synthesis program developed for NASA is now operational on the university IBM 360-50 computer.