NASA has announced plans for a Grand Challenge series aimed at providing a proving ground where NASA, vehicle providers, airspace technology providers, and the public learn what it really requires to achieve urban air mobility (UAM) and operate air vehicles safely in an urban environment..
NASA will ask Grand Challenge participants – from vehicle makers to those that provide airspace operations technologies – “what will be the most helpful to you?” and then synthesize their Grand Challenge experiences to answer that question.
The timeline for the Grand Challenge series is dictated by when participants have told NASA they’ll have technologies ready to test – vehicles (passenger-carrying, cargo-carrying/delivery, sensing/detecting) and the systems required for successful communications and navigation.
In late 2020, there will be developmental testing to prepare for an initial Grand Challenge in 2022 involving a small set of participants, followed by the full Grand Challenge involving many more participants.
The Grand Challenge itself will be a full field demonstration in an urban environment that tests the readiness of companies’ vehicles and airspace operators’ systems to operate during a full range of passenger transport and cargo delivery scenarios under a variety of weather and traffic conditions.
The objectives of the challenge are to:
- Accelerate technology certification and approval
- Develop flight procedure guidelines
- Evaluate communication, navigation and surveillance options
- Demonstrate an airspace system architecture based on NASA’s Unmanned aircraft systems Traffic Management (UTM) construct
- Collect initial assessments of passenger and community perspectives on vehicle ground noise, cabin noise and on-board ride quality
Source: Press Release