Autonomous Flight Manager for Human-in-the-Loop Immersive Simulation and Flight Test of Terrestrial Rockets Testing

An important element of any future autonomous landing systems will be an Autonomous Flight Manager (AFM) and how this system interacts with mission and/or crew operators. Previous program experience has shown that flight demonstration of this technology is critical to providing the necessary level of trusted autonomy for inclusion. Draper proposes to develop an AFM technology payload and an operator/pilot ground control station for immersive simulation and pilot-in-the-loop control demonstration for NASA and commercial aerospace suborbital reusable launch vehicles.

The Autonomous Flight Manager will provide a state-of-the-art technology that enables human interaction with existing fully-automatic/autonomous systems. This technology has the potential to significantly improve mission performance while maintaining personnel safety, for suborbital reusable launch vehicles (sRLVs) and future planetary landing vehicles.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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