2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

SlERRA
The Sensor Integrated Environmental Remote
Research Aircraft (SIERRA) is an unmanned, fixedwing
aircraft, operated by NASA Ames, which is
able to carry up to 100 lbs of science payload, with
endurance from 8-12 hours, up to 12,000 ft. The
project is a partnership between NASA ASP and
the Naval Research Laboratory to demonstrate
a multi-mission, medium payload platform for
sensor development and science missions suited to
unmanned aerial applications.
In FY2009 the SIERRA team completed the New
Technology Demonstration phase of the project
by successfully flying the CASIE mission from
Svalbard, Norway in July 2009. To prepare for this
mission, the team conducted cold weather ground
tests in Truckee, CA, and cold weather flight test
in Dugway, Utah, in partnership with the US Army.
An icing mitigation payload was also developed
and implemented to provide realtime temperature
and humidity data during the flight. The complex
instrument integration, which included 2 LIDARS,
a SAR, 3 digital cameras, 2 microspectrometers, a
pyronometer, and pyrometer demonstrated the utility
of SIERRAs relatively large payload accommodations
for this class of UAS.
In FY2010 the SIERRA UAS will enter into the ASP
aircraft catalog and be available for NASA science
missions. The SIERRA team anticipates supporting
both EV-1 as well as AITT projects. In addition,
partnerships with the USFS, USGS, and NOAA
will provide additional resources for increasing the
number of payloads available for future science
missions.
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