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NASA's Airspace Systems Program (ASP) is investing in the development, validation and transfer of advanced innovative concepts, technologies and procedures to support the development of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). This investment includes partnerships with other government agencies represented in the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO), including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and joint activities with the U.S. aeronautics industry and academia.

test bed aircraft, and the simulation and loads laboratories. A key component of ensuring a test facility's long-term viability is to implement and continually improve on the efficiency and effectiveness of that facility's operations along with developing new technologies to address the nation's future aerospace challenges. To operate a facility in this manner requires the use of state-of-the-art test technologies and test techniques, creative facility performance capability enhancements, and novel means of acquiring test data.

The Aviation Safety Program conducts fundamental research and technology development of known and predicted safety concerns as the nation transitions to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Future challenges to maintaining aviation safety arise from expected significant increases in air traffic, continued operation of legacy vehicles, introduction of new vehicle concepts, increased reliance on automation, and increased operating complexity.

NASA is concerned with new and innovative methods for detection, identification, evaluation, and monitoring of in-flight hazards to aviation. NASA seeks to foster research and development that leads to innovative new technologies and methods, or significant improvements in existing technologies, for in-flight hazard avoidance and mitigation. Technologies may take the form of tools, models, techniques, procedures, substantiated guidelines, prototypes, and devices.

NASA is concerned with the prevention of encounters with hazardous in-flight conditions and the mitigation of their effects when they do occur. Under this subtopic, proposals are invited that explore new and dramatically improved technologies related to inflight airframe and engine icing hazards for manned and unmanned vehicles. Technologies of interest should address the detection, measurement, a ...

The objective of this subtopic is to develop information technologies that enable robots to better support planetary exploration. Intelligent robots are already at work in all of NASA's Mission Directorates and will be critical to the success of future exploration missions.

This subtopic addresses advanced control-oriented techniques for aeroservoelastic (ASE) flight systems including distributed network sensor systems, modeling, simulation, optimization and stabilization methods of ASE systems to actively and/or adaptively control wing geometry, vibration, gust/turbulence response, static/dynamic loads, and other aeroelastic (AE) objectives for enhanced aeroservoelastic performance and stability characteristics.Technical elements for these proposals may include:

This STTR topic seeks commercial solutions that will allow and encourage standardization of key payload to launch vehicle, and subsystem interface standards to reduce the cost associated with analysis, integration, and preparation required to design and then configure space systems for launch. The goal is a set of launch vehicle adapters, processes, and avionics interface standards that can be collectively used to facilitate spacecraft and subsystem design while reducing testing duration and complexity, overall reducing mission risk and while enabling novel mission concepts.

NASA has a growing need for flexible polymer foams for cryogenic insulation, fireproofing, energy absorption and other aerospace applications. NASA Chemists and Engineers at Langley Research Center and Kennedy Space Center have been developing high performance polyimide foams for the last 15 years or more for such applications with great success in varying densities, addressing cell content and e ...

Validation of future complex integrated systems designed to ensure flight safety under off-nominal conditions associated with aircraft loss of control is a significant challenge. Future systems will ensure vehicle flight safety by integrating vehicle health management functions, resilient control functions, flight safety assessment and prediction functions, and crew interface and variable autonomy functions. Each of these functions is characterized by algorithmic diversity that must be addressed in the validation process.