NASA to Build Air Traffic Control System for Drones

NASA has announced plans to develop an air traffic control plan for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) – more commonly known as drones. The news comes after a Twitter message by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which claimed that in June a fixed-wing aircraft was forced to abandon fighting a fire in the San Bernardino Mountains by a hobbyist drone.  

Furthermore, back in April a manned gyrocopter was able to successfully land at the White House without alerting the security radar and numerous drones have crash landed there over the course of recent years. Near collisions with commercial aircraft have also highlighted the need for a better system of control for smaller aircraft to be put in place.

The Rise and Rise of Drones

Although drones have traditionally been used in military operations (gathering intelligence, mapping out terrain and the suchlike), they have slowly and steadily infiltrated other areas of our lives. What with Amazon proposing plans for delivery drones to be in place in the next few years and consumer drones being readily available for amateur enthusiasts, it seems as though drones are here to stay.

Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing. The article How is Drone Technology Affecting Environmental Monitoring? discusses how these small unmanned aircraft can be used to monitor environmental information in inaccessible or remote locations and relay the data to a central control unit, among other functions.

However, when these drones begin to affect manned aircraft (whether it be ferrying passengers or fighting fires) and compromise national security, the potential for serious problems arises.

A Need for Better Monitoring and Control

The existing radar system controlled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) falls short of giving valuable information on drones due to their diminutive size and the height at which they fly. The National Airspace System (NAS) of the States is the world’s largest and safest aerospace network – but it only monitors aircraft between 3,000m and 5,000m. Drones can literally fly under the radar.

Furthermore, the plastic electric-powered construction of drones means that they are often too small to be picked up by radar. These systems are unable to differentiate between drones and non-aircraft, such as bird flocks or kites.

With this in mind, NASA has proposed to develop a new UAS traffic management system (UTM). Among other aspects, the UTM aims to monitor and police:

• Airspace design
• Airspace corridors
• Congestion management
• Route planning and re-routing
• Separation management
• Contingency management
• Dynamic geo-fencing
• Sequencing and spacing
• Severe weather
• High winds

NASA has stressed that drone owners will not be expected to control their aircraft 24/7. Rather, the new UTM is intended to provide owners with the necessary information to: “to make strategic decisions related to initiation, continuation and termination of airspace operations [to] ensure that only authenticated UAS operate in the airspace,” according to their proposal.

Ultimately, NASA hopes to create two types of UTM: a permanent network which offers continuous information about low-flying drones in a specific region, and a portable system which can be moved from place to place.