EAST SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has selected Saab Sensis Corporation, a subsidiary of defense and security company Saab, for the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) "Adaptation of a Surface Management Tool to Multiple, Capacity-Constrained Airports." Under the NRA, Saab Sensis will identify three current-day capacity-constrained airports and create realistic departure scheduling schemes for those airports to be tested within NASA's Surface Operations Simulator and Scheduler (SOSS). Through the research, Saab Sensis will broaden the scope of the NASA airport surface traffic optimization research beyond current trials to further determine their ability to enhance airport capacity through improved sequencing and scheduling.

One of the main objectives of the FAA's NextGen initiative is to ease current and plan for mitigation of future capacity constraints at the nation's airports. As part of the research into effective strategies for mitigating capacity issues, NASA is researching, developing and testing a number of decision support tools (DST) for future deployment in the National Airspace System (NAS) to assist air traffic controllers in addressing capacity issues.

As part of this NRA, Saab Sensis will identify three current-day capacity constrained airports by examining taxi-out delays, scheduled departure demand versus airport departure capacity and other characteristics. For the three airports, Saab Sensis will develop airport surface traffic scheduling approaches along with the ability to interject real-world operational constraints for testing within the SOSS tool.

"Addressing capacity issues through new Decision Support Tools that improve utilization of current runways and taxiways will positively impact air travel for the public through reduced delays and better on-time performance," said Ken Kaminski, vice president and general manager of Saab Sensis. "Saab Sensis will apply its surface traffic management modeling, simulation and DST development experience to accelerate the adaptation of these promising new tools for use in the NAS as a less costly capacity-reduction alternative to capital improvement projects like building more runways."

Saab Sensis is a leader in modeling, simulation and analysis of the potential impact of future airspace and airport improvements through numerous projects for the FAA, NASA, JPDO and other industry and academic organizations. Through its fast-time and real-time capabilities, Saab Sensis can generate current and future air traffic demand scenarios, provide system-wide or regional simulations to evaluate current and future air traffic management concepts, conduct human-in-the-loop simulations of NextGenconcepts, and analyze and visualize simulation results. The company also develops decision support tools that help airport stakeholders address key efficiency and capacity challenges.

Saab Sensis Corporation provides the defense and aviation market with advanced sensor technologies, next-generation radars, automation, modeling and simulation solutions. The company serves military, civil aviation, airport and airline customers in more than 35 countries across six continents.

Saab North America provides a broad range of products, services and solutions ranging from military defence to homeland security to customers in the U.S. and Canada. Saab Sensis Corporation is a business unit of the Saab Group.

http://www.saabgroup.com

http://www.saabsensis.com

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Saab Sensis to Adapt Prototype NASA NextGen Surface Traffic Management Tools for Investigations of Capacity ...

Last week at the 28th National Space Symposium in Boulder, Colo., NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver answered questions about the agency's current diminished capability stemming from budget cuts and the recent end of the shuttle program. In every instance, Garver's answers were closer to soundbites than informative glances at NASA's future plans.

During a panel discussion with representatives from international space agencies and interviews, Garver stayed on message: NASA is advancing the cause of science and making progress in exploring the universe around us.

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The agency's diminished capabilities, she said, are the result of tough economic times. Dealing with the same financial issues as the rest of the country, NASA has had to make tough decisions. It has moved to a more streamlined track, hoping to take advantage of its international partners' understanding to embark on joint projects to further understand the universe around us. The competition resulting as part of this cooperation will facilitate NASA's efforts to reduce mission costs and increase its own competitive edge, which would in turn create more jobs.

Another big item up for discussion was America's commercial space programs. Garver reaffirmed NASA's commitment to commercial space travel, saying that the agency would sooner increase its commercial crew program than change its overall approach to spaceflight. This kind of unwavering support, however, could be disastrous. If its commercial programs need more time, NASA will be forced to depend on Russia for access to the International Space Station a little longer. Already, regular commercial flights to low-Earth orbit have been delayed from 2015 to 2017.

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Dependence on Russia is far from an undesirable situation. Rather, it is a fantastic example of international cooperation in space and demonstrates how far the two countries' relations have come since the Cold War. The former adversaries came together in the wake of the Columbia disaster to strike up a deal ensuring NASA's astronauts could use Soyuz as a backup method. This partnership further ensures the United States' continued participation on the International Space Station, proof that America's astronauts haven't been left in the dust.

It's partnerships like these, she said, that are enabling NASA to step back and reorganize during the transition from the shuttle to its next program. She likened the current lag to that between Apollo's end and the shuttles beginning; it's impossible for a new program to overlap with an old one. Currently, the agency is going through a necessary reduction of operations to reduce costs in anticipation of its future endeavors.

Just what those future endeavors are remains slightly mysterious. Garver offered no concrete answer about the agency's plans -- instead she reaffirmed America's role as a space-faring nation and emphasized that NASA's primary job is to spend taxpayer dollars in a responsible way that keeps the country on the cutting edge of space exploration. When asked about private initiatives like "Penny 4 NASA" that seek to secure more funding for the agency, Garver only said that any extra funding would be well utilized, invested in technologies, and otherwise spent to foster economic growth, expansion and leadership from NASA.

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NASA Deputy Administrator Faces the Tough Questions

FALLS CHURCH, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

DynCorp International today announced that it has been awarded a contract with NASA to provide aircraft maintenance and operational support services at various locations.

The contract, potentially worth $176.9 million, will include work at Ellington Field at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston; NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; NASA facilities in El Paso, Texas, and Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.; and other locations worldwide as required.

Services include support for flight operations, maintenance, repairs and alterations to aircraft, component parts and support equipment and engineering services. Additional services include spaceflight readiness training, airborne research and development and flight test support.

The fixed-price-award-fee/cost-plus-award-fee contract has a $46.6 million base contract, beginning June 1 for one year and four months, with two two-year option periods.

About DynCorp International

DynCorp International is a global government services provider working in support of U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives, delivering support solutions for defense, diplomacy and international development. DI operates major programs in logistics, platform support, contingency operations and training and mentoring to reinforce security, community stability and the rule of law. DynCorp International is headquartered in Falls Church, Va. For more information, visit our blogs or see DynCorp Internationals LinkedIn profile.

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DynCorp International Awarded NASA Contract Valued at up to $176.9 Million

NASA's scheduled flight of space shuttle Enterprise to New York City has been scuppered by a week of poor weather conditions, which have now pushed the delivery of the prototype orbiter back to Friday, the U.S. space agency says.

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NASA's Enterprise flight delayed by NYC weather

PITTSBURGH, April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Astrobotic Technology today announced a NASA contract to determine whether its polar rover can deploy an ice-prospecting payload to the Moon. The ice could yield water, oxygen, methane and rocket propellant to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration.

"Astrobotic seeks the immense resources available on the Moon to both accelerate space exploration and improve life on Earth," said David Gump, president. "The lunar path is near term. We intend a prospecting mission in 2015."

Astrobotic began development of its lunar excavation robot in 2009 under a series of NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts that now total $795,000. The new NASA SBIR Phase 3 follow-on contract is to consider robot refinements for carrying NASA-supplied instruments and a drill.

Recent lunar-orbiting satellites from several nations, and a NASA probe that impacted near the Moon's south pole, have sensed polar ice composed of water, methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and other substances. These polar resources went undiscovered during the Apollo expeditions which landed near the equator. The next step is to drill and measure the polar ices directly to see if they are sufficiently concentrated to be useful.

Lunar propellant derived from the ice could fuel spacecraft for long voyages, Earth-return, or maneuvering satellites. Water and oxygen would be invaluable for life support. Other elements have immense value for energy, processes, fabrication and habitation.

When seeking resources from planetary destinations, the four-day travel time to reach the Moon enables early return on investment compared to more distant targets.

Astrobotic has reserved a Falcon 9 launch vehicle made by SpaceX to send its spacecraft and robot explorer on a trajectory toward the Moon. The Astrobotic spacecraft will deliver the prospector to the lunar surface with technology that autonomously avoids landing hazards such as large rocks and craters. The navigation system is derived from technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University under Dr. William "Red" Whittaker, Astrobotic's founder. Dr. Whittaker won the DARPA Urban Challenge with a driverless car able to autonomously navigate through city streets, avoiding other cars and obeying the California traffic code. The ability to detect hazards and automatically select alternative pathways is the core of Astrobotic's automatic lunar landing system.

Astrobotic has won $12 million in nine NASA lunar contracts, covering topics from simulating lunar gravity on Earth to discovering ways to robotically explore the Moon's volcanic caves. Lunar satellites recently spotted potential entrances to these caves, which can provide shelter to robot and human explorers from the radiation, micrometeorites and extreme temperature swings of the lunar surface.

Astrobotic's commercial expeditions carry payloads for space agencies and generate exclusive media content for television and Web portals. Corporate sponsors will give their customers direct access to the robot's frontier-building activities through competitions and custom internet feeds.

Astrobotic is a spinout from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, which carries out lunar research funded by Astrobotic. More information is available at http://www.astrobotictech.com.

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NASA Contract to Astrobotic Technology Investigates Prospecting for Lunar Resources

With NASA's oldest and most-flown space shuttle now delivered to its museum retirement home, the commercial future of American human spaceflight is taking center stage.

On Thursday, NASA delivered the shuttle Discovery the fleet leader with 39 space missions under its belt to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Discovery will help teach visitors about the nation's manned spaceflight past, which promises to be much different than its future.

NASA is now looking to the private sector to ferry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and it's hoping that at least two companies have orbital taxis up and running by 2017. The hope is that competition can bring costs down, helping open up the final frontier for further exploration and exploitation.

"We look to keep competition for as long as we can, to service (the) space station with crew and cargo as soon as possible," NASA deputy chief Lori Garver told reporters last week. "We want to fly the space station longer than 2020; people have talked about this with our international partners. But we need to get the costs of servicing it and operating it down." [ Top 10 Private Spaceships Headed for Reality ]

Filling the shuttle's shoes NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in July 2011 after 30 years of orbital service. The United States is now dependent upon Russian Soyuz vehicles to ferry its astronauts to and from the station.

But NASA intends this dependence to be temporary. The agency is encouraging a handful of American private spaceflight companies to develop their own manned spaceships. Over the past two years, NASA's Commercial Crew Development program has given a total of $320 million to four American aerospace firms: SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada and Boeing.

SpaceX is using its share of the money to upgrade its Dragon capsule, which NASA also wants to make robotic cargo runs to the space station. In fact, Dragon is slated to launch on an unmanned demonstration mission originally slated for April 30 but now likely pushed back to May 7 during which it will berth with the orbiting lab and offload some cargo a first for a private spaceship.

If the flight goes well, Dragon could begin making bona fide supply runs to the station later in the year, SpaceX officials have said. The company holds a $1.6 billion NASA contract to fly 12 such missions in the coming years.

SpaceX has said that a crewed version of Dragon, which is designed to carry up to seven astronauts, could be operational within three years. Its progress will likely be accelerated by the robotic version's supply missions, according to company founder and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

"Because there are so many similarities between the cargo version of Dragon and the crew version of Dragon, we're learning a great deal about crew transport when we do a cargo mission," Musk told reporters last week.

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NASA now counting on private space taxis

NASA is planning to test a GPS-based system that could rapidly pinpoint the location and magnitude of earthquakes across the western U.S.

Excerpt from:

NASA Tests GPS-Based Earthquake Monitoring System

With NASA's oldest and most-flown space shuttle now delivered to its museum retirement home, the commercial future of American human spaceflight is taking center stage.

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As Shuttles Head to Museums, NASA Counts on Private Astronaut Taxis