2009 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Common Data and
Communications Systems
Full-scale development is underway on a new
generation of airborne data systems that will
be deployed on the core NASA science aircraft
over the next several years. With the increasing
availability of satellite communications systems
for aircraft, the potential for greatly increasing
the science utility of these platforms is becoming
evident. Data from the payload instruments,
together with aircraft position, but can be
broadcast to science teams on the ground,
who can then actively adjust their experiment
plans, and coordinate multiple platforms, in
near real-time. For unattended instruments on
platforms such as the ER-2 or Global Hawk, these
bidirectional links will also be used to monitor
instrument performance, conduct real-time
diagnostics, and command changes to system
parameters over the course of a mission. Some
of these techniques have been demonstrated on
the Ikhana UAS with a Ku-band telemetry system,
and on the DC-8 and ER-2 using Iridium satellite
phone modems. A new Inmarsat BGAN sat-com
system was also installed for this purpose on the
DC-8 this year.
Key elements of this new communication
architecture include an onboard Ethernet
network linking the payload instruments to a
common server, and a user-transparent sat-com
system that extends the network to a ground
operations center. It will also utilize standard
communications protocols and data formats,
including the IWG-1 format developed by the
Interagency Working Group for Airborne Data
and Telecommunications Systems (IWGADTS.)
Figure 57:
Ethernet switch.
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