Topics

Achieving a vision for a safer and more efficient National Airspace (NAS) with increasing traffic and the introduction of new vehicle types requires increasingly intelligent vehicle systems able to respond to complex and changing environments in a resilient and trustworthy manner. Future air vehicles, especially autonomous vehicles and those that support Urban Air Mobility (UAM), must operate wi ...

Hypersonic aircraft have structural challenges that require significant advances in materials and in their manufacturing processes. Because a hypersonic aircraft must be streamlined for low drag, it is volume limited with sharp leading edges and thin wings, and it has tight integration of the propulsion system and the airframe. Aerodynamic friction produces external structure temperatures above 1, ...

NASA continues to use flight research as a critical element in the maturation of technology. This includes developing test techniques that improve the control of in-flight test conditions, expanding measurement and analysis methodologies, and improving test data acquisition and management with sensors and systems that have fast response, low volume, minimal intrusion, and high accuracy and reliab ...

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) offer advantages over manned aircraft for applications which are dangerous to humans, long in duration, require great precision, and require quick reaction. Examples of such applications include remote sensing, disaster response, delivery of goods, agricultural support, urban air mobility, and many others that are known or yet to be discovered. The future of UAS pro ...

This subtopic addresses contributions towards advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems and concepts with potential application in the near- to mid-term National Airspace System (2020-2035), focused on conventional, and mostly commercial, operations. The goals for this system are addressing established ATM challenges of improving efficiency, capacity, and throughput while minimizing negative e ...

NASA's future concepts for air transportation (2025+) will significantly expand the capabilities of airspace and vehicle management and are anticipated to increasingly rely on autonomy and/or artificial intelligence to ensure safe and equitable operations. Such future concepts propose a seamless, integrated, flexible and robust set of systems that are anticipated to include all vehicle types (trad ...

Public benefits derived from continued growth in the transport of passengers and cargo are dependent on the improvement of the intrinsic safety attributes of the Nation’s and the world’s current and future air transportation system. Recent developments to address increasing demand are leading to greater system complexity, including airspace systems with tightly coupled air and ground functions ...

NASA is exploring airspace operations incorporating unmanned vehicles and novel operations occurring in all airspaces (controlled and uncontrolled), with a goal to safely and efficiently integrate with existing operations and mission types.NASA’s work in this area has already demonstrated the potential benefits and capabilities of a service-based architecture (such as developed for the Unmanned ...

NASA is interested in utilizing SmallSats/CubeSats (6U-12U, < 50kg CubeSats targeted) for cislunar, interplanetary and/or deep space missions, including lunar exploration precursor missions and missions identified in recent Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3). To accomplish this, advances in chemical propulsion systems for these class of spacecraft are sought, to complete maneuve ...

Over recent years, the small spacecraft industry has developed into an economic factor for space business. As these small spacecraft develop in capability and developers plan both for longer missions and usage beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), they have the need for more advanced electronic solutions beyond what is normally available in existing space-qualified product lines. Designers need these solu ...