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By Space Force
The commander of Space Forces Indo-Pacific discussed the importance of working with regional allies in order to deter adversaries and maintain a rules-based international order, Oct. 22.
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By European Space Agency
At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Milan this week, ESA signed a contract for Element #1, the first phase of the HydRON Demonstration System. HydRON, which stands for High thRoughput Optical Network, is set to transform the way data-collecting satellites communicate, using laser technology that will allow satellites to connect with each other and ground networks much faster.
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
An artist’s concept of the X-66 aircraft Boeing will produce through NASA’s Sustainable Flight Demonstrator project. The aircraft, designed to prove the concept of more aerodynamic, fuel-efficient transonic truss-braced wings, is an example of the type of project model-based systems analysis and engineering will provide benefits to.Boeing As NASA continues cutting-edge aeronautics research, the agency also is taking steps to make sure the benefits from these diverse technologies are greater than the sum of their parts.
To tackle that challenge, NASA is using Model-Based Systems Analysis and Engineering (MBSAE). This type of engineering digitally simulates how multiple technologies could best work together as a single, complex system. It is performed using advanced digital tools and computing programs.
The goal: Optimize the next generation of 21st-century aviation technology.
Model Benefits
“MBSAE provides a way to envision how all these technologies, being developed separately, can all fit together in the end,” said Eric Hendricks, who leads MBSAE integration efforts for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
By using this form of digital engineering, NASA’s aeronautical innovators can have a better idea of how their research in one area (say, ultra-efficient airliners) could best benefit, and work in tandem, with another area (say, future airspace safety).
Using detailed, customizable digital models, researchers can simulate these complex systems working together with a high degree of accuracy and then figure out how the greatest benefits could be achieved.
“As we move toward these advanced systems, MBSAE can connect different disciplines and determine how to eke out the best performance,” Hendricks said.
That process feeds back into the research itself, helping researchers to significantly improve aviation’s sustainability – amongst other goals.
Zeroing In
MBSAE does more than integrating complex systems, however. Each system, individually, can be optimized using MBSAE tools.
“Before the technology is even fully developed, we can run highly accurate digital simulations that inform the research itself,” Hendricks said. “A digital flight test is a lot simpler and less costly than a real flight test.”
For example, one of NASA’s new MBSAE tools, Aviary, includes the ability to consider gradients. That means Aviary can figure out how to more efficiently optimize a given technology.
Say a researcher would like to know which type of battery is needed to power an airplane during a certain maneuver. The researcher inputs information about the airplane, the maneuver, and battery technologies into Aviary, then Aviary goes and runs digital flight tests and comes back with which type of battery worked best.
Digital flights tests like this can be done for myriad other areas as well, ranging from an aircraft’s overall shape to the size of its engine core, its electrical systems, and beyond. Then, the digital flight tests can help figure out how to combine these systems in the most effective way.
Digital Era Aeronautics
Another way MBSAE can come in handy is the scale of these aviation transformations.
With demand for single-aisle airliners expected to rise dramatically in the coming decades, measuring the emissions reductions from a certain wing design, for example, would not just extend to one aircraft, but also an entire fleet.
“We’ll be able to take what we learn from our sustainable aviation projects and simulate the technology entering the fleet at certain points,” said Rich Wahls, NASA’s mission integration manager for the Sustainable Flight National Partnership at NASA Headquarters. “We can model the fleet itself to see how much more sustainable these technologies are across the board.”
Ultimately, MBSAE also represents a new era in aeronautical innovation – both at NASA and in the aviation industry, with whom NASA is working closely to ensure its MBSAE efforts are cross compatible on an opensource platform.
“The MBSAE team has lots of early-to-mid career folks,” Hendricks said. “It’s great to see the younger generation get involved and even take the lead, especially since these digital efforts can facilitate knowledge transfer as well.”
About the Author
John Gould
Aeronautics Research Mission DirectorateJohn Gould is a member of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications team at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He is dedicated to public service and NASA’s leading role in scientific exploration. Prior to working for NASA Aeronautics, he was a spaceflight historian and writer, having a lifelong passion for space and aviation.
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Last Updated Aug 04, 2024 EditorJim BankeContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related Terms
Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Flight Innovation Sustainable Flight National Partnership View the full article
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By NASA
4 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
This image shows an aviation version of a smartphone navigation app that makes suggestions for an aircraft to fly an alternate, more efficient route. The new trajectories are based on information available from NASA’s Digital Information Platform and processed by the Collaborative Departure Digital Rerouting tool.NASA Just like your smartphone navigation app can instantly analyze information from many sources to suggest the best route to follow, a NASA-developed resource is now making data available to help the aviation industry do the same thing.
To assist air traffic managers in keeping airplanes moving efficiently through the skies, information about weather, potential delays, and more is being gathered and processed to support decision making tools for a variety of aviation applications.
Appropriately named the Digital Information Platform (DIP), this living database hosts key data gathered by flight participants such as airlines or drone operators. It will help power additional tools that, among other benefits, can save you travel time.
Ultimately, the aviation industry… and even the flying public, will benefit from what we develop.
Swati Saxena
NASA Aerospace Engineer
“Through DIP we’re also demonstrating how to deliver digital services for aviation users via a modern cloud-based, service-oriented architecture,” said Swati Saxena, DIP project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California.
The intent is not to compete with others. Instead, the hope is that industry will see DIP as a reference they can use in developing and implementing their own platforms and digital services.
“Ultimately, the aviation industry – the Federal Aviation Administration, commercial airlines, flight operators, and even the flying public – will benefit from what we develop,” Saxena said.
The platform and digital services have even more benefits than just saving some time on a journey.
For example, NASA recently collaborated with airlines to demonstrate a traffic management tool that improved traffic flow at select airports, saving thousands of pounds of jet fuel and significantly reducing carbon emissions.
Now, much of the data gathered in collaboration with airlines and integrated on the platform is publicly available. Users who qualify can create a guest account and access DIP data at a new website created by the project.
It’s all part of NASA’s vision for 21st century aviation involving revolutionary next-generation future airspace and safety tools.
Managing Future Air Traffic
During the 2030s and beyond, the skies above the United States are expected to become much busier.
Facing this rising demand, the current National Airspace System – the network of U.S. aviation infrastructure including airports, air navigation facilities, and communications – will be challenged to keep up. DIP represents a key piece of solving that challenge.
NASA’s vision for future airspace and safety involves new technology to create a highly automated, safe, and scalable environment.
What this vision looks like is a flight environment where many types of vehicles and their pilots, as well as air traffic managers, use state-of-the-art automated tools and systems that provide highly detailed and curated information.
These tools leverage new capabilities like machine learning and artificial intelligence to streamline efficiency and handle the increase in traffic expected in the coming decades.
Digital Services Ecosystem in Action
To begin implementing this new vision, our aeronautical innovators are evaluating their platform, DIP, and services at several airports in Texas. This initial stage is a building block for larger such demonstrations in the future.
“These digital services are being used in the live operational environment by our airline partners to improve efficiency of the current airspace operations,” Saxena said. “The tools are currently in use in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and will be deployed in the Houston airspace in 2025.”
The results from these digital tools are already making a difference.
Proven Air Traffic Results
During 2022, a NASA machine learning-based tool named Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting, designed to improve the flow of air traffic and prevent flight delays, saved more than 24,000 lbs. (10,886 kg.) of fuel by streamlining air traffic in the Dallas area.
If such tools were used across the entire country, the improvements made in efficiency, safety, and sustainability would make a notable difference to the flying public and industry.
“Continued agreements with airlines and the aviation industry led to the creation and expansion of this partnership ecosystem,” Saxena said. “There have been benefits across the board.”
DIP was developed under NASA’s Airspace Operations and Safety Program.
Learn about NASA’s Collaborative Digital Departure Rerouting tool and how it uses information from the Digital Information Platform to provide airlines with routing options similar to how drivers navigate using cellphone apps. About the Author
John Gould
Aeronautics Research Mission DirectorateJohn Gould is a member of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications team at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. He is dedicated to public service and NASA’s leading role in scientific exploration. Prior to working for NASA Aeronautics, he was a spaceflight historian and writer, having a lifelong passion for space and aviation.
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Last Updated Jul 12, 2024 EditorJim BankeContactJim Bankejim.banke@nasa.gov Related Terms
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By NASA
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson delivers remarks during an event with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to highlight how the agencies are making progress toward the Biden Cancer Moonshot on March 21 in the Earth Information Center at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington. NASA is working with agencies and researchers across the federal government to help cut the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years, a goal of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative.Credits: NASA/Keegan Barber As part of the Biden Cancer Moonshot, NASA will virtually host an event at 2 p.m. EDT Thursday, July 11, to highlight how the agency is working to end cancer for the benefit of humanity by conducting research aboard the International Space Station.
The event will stream on NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Additional participants include:
Dr. Michael Roberts, chief scientific officer, International Space Station National Laboratory Dr. Catriona Jamieson, director, Sanford Stem Cell Institute at the University of California San Diego As a member of the Cancer Cabinet, NASA is working with agencies and researchers across the federal government to reduce the nation’s cancer death rate by at least 50% in the next 25 years, one of the ambitious but achievable goals of the Cancer Moonshot.
Learn more about the Biden Cancer Moonshot at:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot/
-end-
Faith McKie
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
faith.d.mckie@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Jul 10, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
International Space Station (ISS) Humans in Space ISS Research View the full article
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