NASA Announces Urban Drone Traffic Management Tests

https://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/new...-232309-1.html

NASA Announces Urban Drone Traffic Management Tests

By Kate O'Connor | February 20, 2019

Image: NASA

NASA has selected the hosts for the final phase of its four-year
series of small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS/drones) technical
demonstrations. According to NASA, the demonstrations are designed to
confirm that NASA’s UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system can safely and
effectively manage drone traffic in urban areas and “aim to help the
commercial drone industry understand the challenges posed by flying in
an urban environment.” The demonstration flights will be hosted by the
Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems https://nias-uas.com/ in Las
Vegas, Nevada, and the Lone Star UAS Center for Excellence &
Innovation http://lsuasc.tamucc.edu/ in Corpus Christi, Texas.

“This phase represents the most complicated demonstration of advanced
UAS operating in a demanding urban environment that will have been
tested to date,” said NASA UTM project manager Ronald Johnson. “We are
pleased at the plans by our partners in Nevada and Texas to conduct
flight tests in a true urban environment with the support of the City
of Reno and the City of Corpus Christi.”

The flights are scheduled to take place between March and June in
Nevada and during July and August in Texas. NASA is looking to
demonstrate technologies including an airspace regulator Flight
Information Management System, UAS Service Supplier interface for
multiple independent UAS traffic management service providers and an
interface with vehicle integrated detect-and-avoid capabilities,
vehicle-to-vehicle communication and collision avoidance, and
automated safe landing technologies.


Comments (4)

NextGen v2.0 ?
This should be interesting. And entertaining.

Posted by: YARS (Tom Yarsley) | February 21, 2019 8:55 AM



An entire system of unmanned vehicles operating in highly populated
areas.....
all based on a weak GPS signals and unauthenticated ADS-B protocol.

What could possible go wrong. ;-)

Posted by: Mark Fraser | February 21, 2019 9:46 AM



.... and the Real Pilots yell "Get a horse!" at the newfangled
technology.

It's a good thing we weren't around in 1903. That poor-performing
Wright Brothers invention would have gone nowhere.

Posted by: Rollin Olson | February 21, 2019 5:22 PM


Being involved with information technology for 35 years, the problem
is NOT the technology; it's the glaring lack of security with the new
technology. Having a countries airspace control system open to global
access yet zero encryption (or authentication) is a big concern.

Since the Wrights only succeeded with logic and reason, they would
disprove of the NASA approach of "lets get it built first and then
worry about control".

Posted by: Mark Fraser | February 21, 2019 6:47 PM