2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program

Looking Ahead
to FY09 and
Beyond
The Airborne Science
Program strives to be
relevant to our science
users, who help set the
future direction for this
Program. We are making
a long-term commitment to the improved
portability of instruments. With that comes
the development of standard interfaces for
power, data distribution, control, and vehicle
state data to the sensors throughout our
fleet of science research platforms.
In addition, we have several significant
platform enhancements planned in FY09,
including work to build on our new Global
Hawk Unmanned Aerial System to add a
long endurance, high altitude operational
system for supporting the science community.
We also plan to stand up the G-III with the
UAVSAR and Sierra UAS into full operational
capabilities. The WB-57 in 2009 will increase
its gross weight and add Superpods, in
addition to the current Spearpods, allowing
for greater science payload, while still carrying
a full load of fuel, to improve its endurance
and range capability.
We are developing a standardized integration
system between our platforms and sensors;
in the form of investigator guides, reporting
processes, and developing procedures that
will be acceptable to all the NASA centers
for airborne science instrument airworthiness.
Another area that ties into our standard
interface systems is building a robust overthe-horizon
telemetry and communication
system to support our campaign
telepresence and sensor web systems. Finally,
we are rolling out our new web-based flight
request process, which should give us an
improved response and tracking capability for
our science users.
Our program remains vibrant, relevant, and
committed to the science community, and
we expect these investments will allow us
to continue reducing the cost to fly while
increasing the data yield for each hour of
flight.
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