2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Common Data &
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. Not only aircraft position, but
actual data from the
payload instruments can
be broadcast to science
teams on the ground,
who
can then actively adjust
their experiment plans,
and coordinate multiple
platforms, in near realtime.
For unattended
instruments on platforms
such as the ER-2 or Global
Hawk, these bi-directional
links can 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 previously demonstrated on the
DC-8 aircraft using Iridium satellite phone
modems, and were further refined in 2008
on both the DC-8 and P-3 during the
ARCTAS missions.
Figure 41 (pg. 94) shows an overview of the
new airborne communications architecture.
Key elements of this new communication
architecture include an onboard ethernet
Figure 40
A screen shot from the DC-8 in-flight science data system during one
of the ARCTAS missions in Canada. The flight tracks of the DC-8 and
P-3, together with weather radar, MODIS satellite fire detections and
lightning strike data, are overlain on a Google Earth background.
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