Sep 13 2012
From The Space Library
RELEASE: 12-316 NASA AND THE NETHERLANDS AEROSPACE LABORATORY SIGN AVIATION AGREEMENTS
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Associate Administrator for Aeronautics Research Jaiwon Shin and National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) of The Netherlands General Director Michel Peters signed two cooperative agreements in the field of air traffic management in Amsterdam Thursday. "NASA and NLR share a mutual interest in optimizing airport surface traffic," Shin said. "The collaborative research emanating from these two agreements will help our airports avoid surface conflicts, reduce delays, eliminate congestion and improve efficiency benefiting all airline passengers." One agreement relates to cooperative research in reducing air traffic congestion in the terminal area. The other agreement outlines cooperation in predicting conflicts to increase safety and airport surface traffic to reduce delays thereby saving fuel while reducing noise and emissions. These agreements will lead to a mutual beneficial collaboration in research. Because both NASA and NLR independently have developed tools for efficient terminal operations, the collaboration will validate these tools and concepts through simulations and operational trials with airlines, airports and air navigation service providers. According to Peters, NASA and NLR already are working together in several areas, such as aircraft noise modeling and simulation. "We recognize the need for international cooperation to achieve innovations for aviation, ensuring global interoperability," Peters said. "Our extended cooperation is a logical step forward to mature new technologies for applications in air traffic management."
RELEASE: 12-321 NASA OFFERS OPPORTUNITY TO USE COMMUNICATIONS TESTBED ON SPACE STATION
WASHINGTON -- NASA is announcing opportunities for academia, industry and government agencies to develop and carry out research and technology demonstrations on the International Space Station using the newly installed Space Communications and Navigation (SCAN) testbed. There are two announcements of opportunity. The SCAN Testbed Experiment Opportunity invites industry and other government agencies to enter into Space Act Agreements with NASA to use the space station's SCAN platform. The SCAN Testbed Cooperative Agreement Notice invites academia to develop proposals to use the orbiting laboratory's SCAN testbed research capabilities. NASA expects the first demonstrations by late 2013 or early 2014. These opportunities will allow researchers to develop new software according to the Space Telecommunications Radio Standard (STRS) architecture for radios and reconfigure how radios communicate in space. Experiments will provide waveforms and software components to the STRS waveform repository and enable future hardware platforms to use common reusable software modules. These new capabilities could enable greater scientific return from future NASA missions. The SCAN testbed is a communications, navigation and networking demonstration platform based on the STRS. The experimental platform began its initial checkout activities on the space station Aug. 13 and will operate for as long as three years. NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland leads the SCAN testbed multi-center team, which includes the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.; and Johnson Space Center in Houston. General Dynamics of Scottsdale, Ariz., and Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., developed software-defined radios under cooperative agreements with NASA. The testbed is managed by the SCAN Program Office within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
CONTRACT RELEASE: C12-048 NASA SELECTS ADDITIONAL COMPANIES FOR CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS AT STENNIS
WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected four more companies for indefinite-delivery, indefinite- quantity multiple-award construction contracts at the agency's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss. These are in addition to six companies selected in August. The fixed price contracts consist of a performance period of five years, with a total value not to exceed $700 million. The companies selected are: -- American Contractor & Technology, Inc., Scott, La. -- D.N.P. Inc., Biloxi, Miss. -- Healtheon, Inc., New Orleans, La. -- Southeast Cherokee Construction, Inc., Montgomery, Ala. Work under the contract includes, but will not be limited to, building and facility maintenance, repair and alteration; mechanical, civil and electrical engineering; heating and air conditioning maintenance; demolition; painting; earthwork; fencing; steel fabrication and welding. Additional work also may include design-and-build projects for new construction of buildings or facilities.
