National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A Publication of NASA Research Park

Fall

2017

NRP POST

THE

First-Ever 3D Printing in a Space-like 

Environment Demonstrated 

By Bryan Culbert Moffett Field, Calif., 1st August 2017 

Under its Tipping Point contract with NASA, Made In Space, Inc. 

(MIS) recently manufactured the first-ever extended 3D-printed 

objects in a space-like environment, a significant milestone on 

the path to manufacturing systems and satellites in space. In a thermal 

vacuum chamber (TVAC) at NASA Ames Research Center’s Engineering 

Evaluation Laboratory (EEL), MIS’s Extended Structure Additive Manufacturing Machine (ESAMM) successfully operated within the vacuum and 

temperature environment of space. In its facilities, MIS quickly built on 

this success, using ESAMM hardware to manufacture a beam structure 

measuring over 30 meters in length. The ability to manufacture complex, 

large-scale structures in space is a critical enabler of next-generation, 

space-optimized satellite design and deployment. 

New Chapter Opens for Commercial Space: 

NanoRacks and NASA Sign 

NextSTEP Contract for Commercial Habitat 

Concept Study

By Jeffrey Manber, CEO NanoRacks September 2017

T

his week marks an important milestone for NanoRacks.

NanoRacks and NASA have signed the contract for Ixion, a 

commercial habitat concept study first announced last summer. 

The contract will focus on re-purposing spent launch vehicle upper 

stages. NanoRacks is working with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to 

provide launch services and Space Systems Loral who will provide 

robotic outfitting capabilities.

Funded by the NASA NextSTEP-2 award, the Ixion concept is the 

only one of the NASA-funded programs that focuses on re-purposing 

spent launch vehicle upper stages.

For us, at NanoRacks, the signing of the agreement marks a broader 

milestone: the public start of our commitment to bring about cost-efficient, commercial space stations via re-purposing in-space hardware, 

and we can’t wait to bring you along for the ride into the future.

Every step NanoRacks takes on the International Space Station (ISS) 

is preparing us for building on our vision of the future – a world 

where launches are plentiful, the in-space destination is king – and 

commercial habitats and space stations populate our solar system 

with customers from every sector of our society.

Starting with plug-and-play research modules, we’ve mastered how 

to operate science labs in micro-gravity and leverage the astronaut 

expertise on-board, while also building up robotics programs for 

Continued on page 5

Continued on page 2 Steve Jurczyk, NASA Associates Administrator for Space Technology 

and Andrew Rush viewing a robotics demonstration
NRP Post

2 www.nasa.gov

IN THIS ISSUE

1 | New Chapter for NanoRacks

NanoRacks and Ixion team up to explore space together

1 | Made In Space 3D Printing

Made In Space continues to prove 3D printing in space does 

work including testing in a “space-like environment”

3 | Singularity University (SU) Announces 

SU Ventures

Partners being recognized in Spinoff 2017

4 | Eugene Tu Announces NASA Ames

Deputy Center Director

Carol Carrol announced as new Deputy Center Director

5 | RVM Helping ONE NASA Program Managers

NanoRacks announced as Small Business Prime Contractor of the year 

6 | CMU-SV Mentor Teens in Hackathon

CMU-SV working with students to make a better society through 

coding

7 | Moon Express & NanoRacks Working

Together Beyond Earth Orbit

Looking for new breakthroughs 

8 | USGS Using Real-Time Hydrologic Data

Spinoff features Verdigris and its energy conservation technology 

at Ames

8 | NanoRacks at Dubai Expo 2020

NanoRacks to attend Dubai Expo in 2020

9 | AirMap & Kespry and Drones

AirMap and Kespry team up on drone research and development

10 | Drones in the Matrix

CMU teaching drones to fly

12 | CMU and USGS Working Together

Crowd-sourced Geodesy to study earthquakes

2 www.nasa.gov

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From 3D Printing in Space, continued from page 1

As part of its in-space manufacturing and assembly 

technology, Archinaut, ESAMM is used to manufacture space-optimized structures. Archinaut combines 

robotic assembly with ESAMM to produce bigger, more 

complex structures than exist in space today. Because 

this technology manufactures in space, it enables the 

optimization of structures and spacecraft for the space 

environment instead of the launch environment. 

“These successful 

demonstrations 

mean that on-demand, adaptable manufacturing of complex structures 

in space has been significantly de-risked,” said Andrew 

Rush, MIS President & CEO. 

“This expands the design 

space. We hope that mission planners can now more 

confidently design missions 

around in-space manufacturing and assembly, optimizing 

satellites for their operational 

environment, not just launch.” 

Structures produced in the EEL TVAC facility were made from PEI/

PC, a polymer alloy well-suited to space applications. As part of 

this NASA-backed effort, MIS manufactured a structural segment 

of a space-optimized boom out of PEI/PC on its Additive Manufacturing Facility aboard the International Space Station (ISS). 

Taken together, these tests demonstrate ESAMM’s high state of 

technological readiness. In the lab and on ISS, MIS is continuing 

to advance the state of the art with ongoing robotic assembly 

development and improvements to space-capable manufacturing 

technologies. “Satellites incorporating in-space manufacturing and 

assembly will inherently be more capable and provide more value 

to operators and users,” said Rush. “We’re proud to be making 

this vision a reality and grateful for NASA’s support.” 

2 www.nasa.gov
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 3

NRP Post

Singularity University Announces SU Ventures for Impact 

Entrepreneurs Who Use Exponential 

Technologies for Good By Anna Roubos, Mountain View, California 27th September 2017

S

ingularity University (SU), a global 

community with a mission to educate, inspire, and empower leaders 

to apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges, today 

announced SU Ventures, a new program 

designed for the unique and more longterm needs of impact-focused startups. In 

order for these startups to become highgrowth, sustainable businesses, they need 

early and ongoing funding, rapid and 

iterative customer testing to inform product 

development, as well as connections to a 

global network of domain experts and 

potential partners.

The emphasis on sustained engagement is 

critical. These entrepreneurs are tackling 

humanity’s greatest challenges surrounding water, food, disaster resilience, climate, health, and education, to name a 

few, by using rapidly evolving, exponential 

technologies such as artificial intelligence, 

virtual reality, digital biology, and nanotechnology. The difficulty of their missions 

is of a different order of magnitude to the 

traditional entrepreneurial effort, which is 

often focused on bringing the next generation of existing solutions to market. 

Rather, these social impact creators are 

striving to solve big problems that could 

favorably impact a billion people within 

ten years with their moonshot initiatives.

“SU Ventures is the first and only program 

developed to encourage more, successful 

impact entrepreneurs to solve humanity’s challenges,” said Monique Giggy, 

Managing Director of SU Ventures. “SU 

has the global network of corporates, 

development organizations, and experts 

to open doors to early customers and partnerships. We also have an arsenal of boot 

camps, sprints, retreats, labs, summits, and 

other tools to ensure these startups deliver 

impactful breakthroughs. We go well beyond traditional accelerators and incubators to give them an ‘all-you-can-engage’ 

format for the lifetime of the startup.”

“We believe Singularity University has 

one of the few well-positioned startup programs with solid management to execute 

the operations and help companies reach 

their goals,” said Paul Mahal, CEO of 

Stanford Ventures, LLC.

SU Ventures Tools for Social Entrepreneurs 

Bringing Abundance to the World

Capital: SU provides boot-camps focused 

on teaching founders how to raise and 

leverage the various types 

of capital they need to 

create growth, scale, and 

sustainability. SU teaches them how to raise and 

blend sources of early seed 

capital from government 

grants and philanthropy, 

to angels, VCs, and social 

impact investors.

Customers: SU helps startups design field-trial pilots 

to test their innovations and 

get real-world feedback. 

Being able to set clear metrics and get fast, iterative 

feedback accelerates the 

startup’s product development life-cycle 

and time to market. SU brings others from 

its global network to ensure these trials are 

successful, including corporations, other 

startups, and development organizations 

in its Impact Partners program.

Connections: SU has a community that is 

200,000-strong across all regions of the 

world. The community includes impact 

investors; corporations; industry, market, 

and technology domain experts; government agencies and NGOs; foundations; 

SU Country Partners and Chapter representatives; and SU alumni and faculty. 

From this community network, SU Ventures curates mentors to help participants 

address specific challenges, scale their 

impact, and understand product market 

fit. SU also curates unique Boards of Advisors with relevant domain experience to 

support founders on their journey. 

To learn more about what the second Incubator class participating in SU Ventures 

is doing to solve global grand challenges 

for climate and the environment, go to the 

SU press release also distributed today 

entitled,Social Entrepreneurs Showcase 

15 Innovations for Global Good to Impact 

Investors at Third Singularity University 

Ventures Demo Faire.

ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY

Singularity University (SU) is a global learning 

and innovation community using exponential 

technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build an abundant future for all. SU’s 

collaborative platform empowers individuals 

and organizations across the globe to learn, 

connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions 

using accelerating technologies like artificial 

intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. A 

certified benefit corporation headquartered 

at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, SU 

was founded in 2008 by renowned innovators 

Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis with 

program funding from leading organizations 

including Google, Deloitte, and UNICEF. To 

learn more, visit SU.org, join us on Facebook, 

follow us on Twitter @SingularityU, and download the SingularityU Hub mobile app.

In Partnership with Impact Investors, SU Ventures is Designed to Encourage More Social 

Entrepreneurship by Providing Long-Term Direction and Support
NRP Post

4 www.nasa.gov

Center Director, Eugene Tu, Announces Carol Carroll as 

NASA Ames Deputy Center Director

I

t is with great pleasure 

that I announce the selection of Ms. Carol Carroll 

as the NASA Ames Deputy 

Center Director, effective 

Sunday, August 6, 2017. 

I am very excited to have 

Carol join me as we lead 

and support the Center and 

Agency into the future.

Carol has a unique blend of 

technical, project/program 

management and mission 

support experience—having worked in many NASA 

Ames and HQ organizations. 

Carol worked on the Unitary 

Wind Tunnel as a safety engineer, delivered TPS flight 

hardware for Mars missions 

and X-Planes as a systems 

engineer, developed and executed in-space propulsion 

programs as a program executive, 

initiated the transformation of the SOFIA Program as the program manager, 

revitalized the Space Biology Program 

and the Space Biology Division and 

greatly expanded the work at Ames 

for the International Space Station 

as the Deputy Director for Science. 

Most recently, as Director of the Ames 

Human Capital and Education 

Directorate, Carol developed and implemented a new strategic workforce 

plan and hiring process that is benefiting the entire center.

Carol was appointed to the Senior 

Executive Service in September 

2009. Prior to joining NASA in 1994, 

she had 11 years of experience in 

the aerospace industry, and she 

designed and developed missile 

launch systems for the Department 

of Defense. Carol received a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech 

and completed the Senior 

Executive Fellows program 

at the Harvard University 

Kennedy School of Government.

With Dr. Thomas Edwards’ 

retirement from NASA on 

July 31, 2017, I want to 

thank him for his more 

than 34 years of service 

to our Center and Agency. 

Throughout this time—and 

my entire career at NASA—

Tom has been a great mentor, colleague, collaborator 

and friend, and I look forward to hearing about his 

future endeavors. We will 

have an opportunity to 

thank Tom personally in late 

August and wish him well 

for the future (more details 

coming soon).

As we end this chapter in Ames leadership, we turn to a new chapter in 

moving our Center forward. Please 

join me in thanking Tom for his service and welcoming Carol to her new 

position as the Ames Deputy Center 

Director.

Moffett Field, CA 6th August 2017

Eugene L. Tu

Center Director

MESSAGE FROM EUGENE L. TU, CENTER DIRECTOR
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 5

NRP Post

RMV Tech Group Will Train ONE NASA Program Managers – 

CubeSats, PCB Troubleshooting & More Moffett Field, California September 2017

NRP Post

S

ince 2014, RMV Technology Group, 

LLC, a NASA Industry Partner, has 

trained the ONE NASA ESD Program 

Managers over a 5-day period in support of 

NASA Programs and Projects. In 2016, a 

one-day ‘mock’ audit of a Contract Manufacturer demonstrated to the NASA engineers 

the significance of Instrument Driven Assessments in an assembly operation. 

On March 26-30, 2018, NASA Ames Code 

R (Engineering) will host the 5-Day Event 

which will take place in Building 152. For 

part of the session, RMV will provide a oneday “Hands On” Instrument and Incoming 

Inspection Training in Building 19, where 

RMV Technology Group 

is headquartered. Attendees will receive the RMV 

ESD Aerospace Engineer 

Certification upon examination and attendance for 

the NASA Electrostatics 

course. 

With the recent updating 

of NASA ESD documents, 

RMV will discuss Class A 

to D Protocols for CubeSats including R&D 

or Unrated Areas where ESD protection is 

required. Other areas to be covered will 

include Risk Classification of Payload Projects, Instrument Driven 

Assessments, Handling of 

Extremely Sensitive Devices and damage that can 

occur upon removal from 

a bag. 

The NASA Program Manager Course has been 

specifically designed for 

Aerospace & Defense 

and has been continually updated every two 

years as Electrostatics 

continues to be a major 

factor for successful programs and projects within NASA. 

This NASA ONE ESD Training is open to 

all NASA Program Managers as a priority. 

Limited seats are available for NSC personnel, Joint Audit Planning Committee (JAPC) 

members and NASA primes. 

If interested in attending this class, please 

contact Gene Monroe, NASA POC for ESD, 

NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, 

Virginia. Call Gene direct at 757-864-6156 

or email gene.s.monroe@nasa.gov. 

For more information, please contact Bob 

Vermillion at bob@esdrmv.com or call Renee 

Mitchell (650) 964-4792. RMV is a Service 

Disabled Veteran Owned (SDVOSB) High 

Technology engineering firm. Please visit the 

website www.esdaerospacetraining.org for 

more information on professional engineering 

services, training and ESD test & evaluation.

From NanoRacks and NASA, continued from page 1

increased automation and efficiency. We’ve stimulated the growth 

of the satellite deployment market as the leading provider for 

CubeSat services in low-Earth orbit, with one of the world’s most 

diverse customer bases. We’re learning how to operate in the 

extreme space environment, while limiting space debris, with our 

External Platform.

Our team, the “Ixion Initiative Team” is a new addition to NASA’s 

NextSTEP effort, and will begin by conducting a comprehensive 

feasibility study evaluating the conversion of rocket upper stages 

into habitats. This innovative approach offers a pathway that is 

more affordable and involves less risk than fabricating modules on 

the ground and subsequently launching them into orbit.

Additionally, the Ixion Initiative Team proposes demonstrating this 

revolutionary, low-cost concept via the conversion of a Centaur 

rocket upper stage, which can be attached to the ISS. After the 

converted Centaur upper stage is attached to the ISS, our team will 

leverage the habitat as a proving ground for a variety of private 

sector activities leading to a new era in commercial low-Earth orbit 

utilization.

NASA has made it clear that the International Space Station will 

be the last U.S. government-funded space station in low-Earth 

orbit – and all of us at NanoRacks believe we are well positioned 

to be one of the commercial leaders as NASA focuses on taking 

America into deep space.

Let the designing begin.
NRP Post

6 www.nasa.gov

CMU-SV Students and Faculty Mentor Teens 

in Hackathon By Emily Durham & Catherine Fang, Cupertino, California 24th June 2017

T

his summer, students and faculty 

from CMU-SV collaborated with 

the Cupertino Library on their third 

annual Teen Hackathon, CU Hacks 3.

This summer, students and faculty from 

Carnegie Mellon University Silicon 

Valley (CMU-SV) collaborated with 

the Santa Clara County Library District 

(SCCLD) and Cupertino Library on the 

third annual Teen Hackathon (CU Hacks 

3) in the Cupertino community. Students 

and faculty from CMU-SV worked 

closely with the library and acted as 

mentors for the local teens, who were 

invited to attend the free event held on 

Saturday, June 24, 2017.

The goal of the hackathon, which had 

the theme of “Smart City,” was to 

encourage local teens (age 14-18) to 

code prototype applications that would 

help the Cupertino community become 

a better place to live—all while giving 

the students hands-on knowledge in 

computer science and software engineering.

“I see parallels in the hackathon with 

what we do in school,” says hackathon 

mentor Elaine Aw, a master’s student 

studying Software Management at 

CMU-SV. “For example, in our classes, 

we identify real-world problems to 

solve with the development of minimal 

viable products. We form groups and 

create prototypes very rapidly to test 

in the market—all in a few weeks. In 

the hackathon, the students gathered 

their ideas in a short time-line, and they 

created prototypes to present on stage 

within a day. It was something challenging for them, and we were glad 

to facilitate their process with our experiences.”

Ten CMU-SV students from the Integrated 

Innovation Institute, the Department 

of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Information Networking 

Institute, as well as CMU-SV faculty 

Gladys Mercier and Catherine Fang, 

acted as mentors during the competition. CMU-SV Professor Catherine Fang 

coordinated with the event organizers, 

Cupertino Library’s Matt Lorenzo and 

Roslyn Donald, to define the mentor 

role. CMU-SV students used the skills 

they acquired at Carnegie Mellon by 

providing guidance to the teens on such 

topics as project idea brainstorming, 

team collaboration, quick research skills, 

debugging, and formality on final pitch.

Around 100 students participated in the 

competition, and students were divided 

into 15 teams of six to seven members, 

with participants separated into four B]

beginner teams and 11 intermediate/

advanced teams. The students’ applications, aka “hacks,” could include 

phone apps, websites, robots, and other 

innovative ideas that could contribute to 

bettering the community. The winning 

team created an image recognition 

app that, when given a photograph of 

a plastic or glass bottle, a container, 

or another object, would tell the user 

whether that item is recyclable or not.

While this collaboration with the 

Cupertino Library allowed CMU-SV to 

spread its resources to the teenagers and 

to the local community as a whole, the 

university and its students also gained 

much from the experience.

“It’s a two-way thing. On one hand, we 

share with the teens our experiences on 

building applications in a team context 

by managing codes in repositories like 

Github, and tips and tricks to debug 

issues,” explains Aw. “On the other 

hand, from the mentor side, you kind 

of feel young again. You can feel the 

energy in the room—the teens learned 

really fast, and it’s amazing that at their 

young age they were able to prove 

their ability to leverage new technologies, like Google Cloud Vision API and 

Firebase, to create new applications. 

It is a nice reminder that regardless of 

age, anyone can be creative, hack, and 

create something of value.”

Through this event, local community 

also gained a better understanding of 

the programs offered at the CMU-SV 

campus. One community member said, 

“It’s amazing that such a great educational resource is so accessible and close 

to us. It’s a big plus to our community.”

“The teens really learned a lot from 

all of the outstanding CMU mentors,” 

says Matt Lorenzo, the host of the 

hackathon. ”It was a wonderful collaborative effort, and in the end, the 

teens created some really awesome 

projects that went towards helping the 

Cupertino community. It would not have 

been possible without the help of the 

entire CMU mentor team. This event 

will keep getting better and better year 

after year.”
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 7

NRP Post

MOON EXPRESS AND NANORACKS TEAM TO SUPPORT COMMERCIAL 

MISSIONS BEYOND EARTH ORBIT Columbia, Maryland 10th October 2017

NanoRacks Alliance with Moon 

Express will Provide Sales & 

Technical Support for Science and 

Commercial Payloads to the Moon and 

Beyond

COLUMBIA, MARYLAND (October 10, 

2017) – Moon Express and NanoRacks, 

leaders in commercial access to space, 

announced an alliance today supporting 

science and commercials payloads flying 

on Moon Express missions to the Moon 

and beyond. The announcement was made 

at the annual meeting of the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) meeting at 

the Universities Space Research Institute 

headquarters in Columbia, Maryland.

Moon Express has introduced a family of 

robotic exploration vehicles designed to 

collapse the cost of access to the Moon 

and other deep space destinations, with 

flights to the Moon beginning in 2018. 

Under the agreement, NanoRacks will 

provide global payload and mission sales, 

marketing, management and technical 

support to Moon Express commercial, 

academic and government customers and 

expedition partners.

 “We are thrilled to partner with Moon 

Express to grow the commercial market and 

provide world-class customer service on 

the Moon and beyond,’ says NanoRacks 

founder and CEO Jeffrey Manber. “Our 

customers are excited about commercial 

lunar opportunities.”

“The primary goal of our alliance with 

NanoRacks is to ensure a great customer 

experience,” said Moon Express Founder 

& CEO, Bob Richards. “Our companies 

share a culture of customer focus, and 

together we will be able to provide end 

to end support from payload concept to 

mission operations.”

Moon Express is partnered with NASA 

under the Lunar CATALYST Program, 

developing new lander technologies 

supporting a U.S. return to the lunar surface, 

and in 2016 became the first company in 

history to receive U.S. government authorization for a commercial mission beyond 

Earth orbit and to the Moon.

NanoRacks operates on the International Space (ISS) Station via a Space Act 

Agreement with NASA’s U.S. National 

Labs. In 2017 the Company announced 

permission from NASA to own and operate 

the first-ever commercial Airlock on the ISS 

to increase commercial opportunities in 

low-Earth orbit. Additionally, NanoRacks, 

along with Space Systems Loral and ULA 

are working under the NASA NextSTEP 

program to look at re-use of upper stages 

of launch vehicles for commercial space 

stations. NanoRacks has launched over 

580 payloads to the space station to date, 

including almost 200 satellites deployed 

from ISS.

Both Moon Express and NanoRacks 

are privately funded commercial space 

ventures seeking to lower the cost of 

access to space to create new opportunities for science, research, exploration 

and commercial missions in and beyond 

Earth orbit.

For more information: nanoracks.com | 

moonexpress.com

www.nasa.gov/researchpark 7
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8 www.nasa.gov

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NanoRacks is thrilled to be working with the creative team behind the Dubai Expo 2020 on 

sharing the importance of space exploration in alignment with the Expo’s 

overarching theme: Connecting Minds, 

Creating the Future.

“Space exploration is our future, and 

NanoRacks is beyond excited to be 

representing the commercial space industry with Dubai Expo 2020,” says 

NanoRacks Director of Marketing Abby 

Dickes. “We are democratizing access to 

space and making the greatest unknown 

obtainable to anyone with the passion to 

explore. The World Fair is such a unique 

platform to share what we work towards 

every day, and we look forward to 

growing our presence in Dubai through 

Expo 2020 and beyond.”

To date, NanoRacks has launched over 

550 satellites and research experiments 

from over 30 countries around the world, 

and has facilitated the first-ever space 

access for Lithuania, Peru, and Vietnam.

Thank you to the Wild Media team 

and the Dubai Expo 2020 for this 

opportunity. To learn more about 

the technology driving the themes 

of Dubai Expo 2020, please visit 

http://www.expo2020dubai.ae/themes.

Dubai Expo 2020 Turns to NanoRacks to Capture Wonders of Space Exploration

Washington, DC 15th June 2017

T

he problem and the opportunity: Transmitting real-time 

hydrologic data typically involves sensors hardwired 

together to a satellite or 

cellular modem. The problem is 

that sensors located too far to be 

wired in need their own telemetry equipment or those data have 

to be downloaded manually. In 

many areas, there are multiple 

stream gages and sensors that 

each have their own telemetry equipment even if they are 

relatively close. Newer technology may enable sensors to be 

wirelessly linked together at a 

lower cost per sensor than conventional methods. In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon 

University (CMU), USGS is co-developing hardware and software 

which will wirelessly 

link multiple sensors 

to a single access 

point for telemetry. 

The research is enabled by the emergence of Low-Power 

Wide-Area networking (LP-WAN) technology, which can 

allow for low-power, 

two-way communication up to 15 km in 

rural areas. This type 

of technology may 

be used to link nearby sensors 

to an existing real-time sites (for 

example, a USGS stream gage), 

cellular modem, or household 

internet connection. USGS will 

field-test this technology on at 

least one demonstration site using water-level loggers which are 

commonly used for hydrologic 

monitoring.

Overall Goal or MVP (minimum 

viable product): LPWAN-based 

hardware and software to enable communication SDI-12-

based sensors to a central telemetry point which will transmit 

data to the USGS National 

Water Inventory System 

(NWIS) database via cellular, 

broadband internet, 

and/or GOES satellite 

telemetry.

Real–Time Hydrologic Data Using Low–Power Wide–Area Network 

(LP–WAN) Technology

8 www.nasa.gov
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 9

NRP Post

AirMap and Kespry announce an exciting new partnership that brings 

AirMap airspace intelligence to 

the Kespry platform for commercial drone operations.

Enterprise customers in mining, 

construction, insurance, and other 

industries count on Kespry’s autonomous drone and flight planning 

and data analytics platform to 

gather aerial data and translate 

it into actionable business insights. 

The Kespry drone can take off, 

gather high-resolution aerial data, 

avoid obstacles, and land without 

the help of a human pilot, allowing industry customers to conduct 

drone operations at scale with 

ease.

Now, anyone with a Kespry drone 

will have instant and integrated 

access to AirMap airspace intelligence when they plan their flights, 

ensuring that each mission can 

be flown more safely, more efficiently, and in compliance with 

relevant airspace conditions and 

requirements.

During the flight planning process, 

the Kespry app automatically surfaces AirMap airspace advisories, 

wind, and weather tailored to the 

unique parameters of each flight, 

including the drone operator’s pilot certification. Preflight checks 

are easier than ever before, 

auto-filling this information in each 

mission plan to help operators 

move more quickly from field, to 

flight, to finish. Airspace rules, 

temporary flight restrictions, and 

the locations of schools, prisons, 

hospitals, power plants, and more 

can be viewed with just a tap.

The result: a richer, more streamlined experience that makes situational awareness and flight 

planning effortless for Kespry 

customers.

Kespry is also the first in the drone 

industry to integrate airspace intelligence from AirMap’s contextual 

airspace offering, which tailors 

rules and conditions to the exact 

specifications of each mission, 

including operator certification, 

flight location, and speed, height, 

and weight requirements. Users of 

AirMap’s web and mobile apps 

will already be familiar with some 

of our new contextual airspace 

features, which will be released 

to the entire AirMap community 

via an API in 2018.

To get started with a Kespry

drone and explore the

AirMap integration, visit

www.kespry.com.

AirMap and Kespry Take Commercial Drone Operations to New Heights

9th November 2017

www.nasa.gov/researchpark 9
10 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

I

n the 1999 film The Matrix, a young hacker named 

Neo learns that the world as he knows it is a virtual 

simulation—and with this realization comes the ability 

to use this virtual world to his advantage. In one scene, 

Neo, who has no combat training whatsoever, downloads an extensive knowledge of martial arts into his 

brain, making him a Kung Fu master in mere seconds.

“What we’re doing is just like the Matrix,” says Bob 

Iannucci, distinguished service professor of ECE at 

CMU-SV. “We’re hooking into the visual cortex and 

downloading information that would typically take 

much longer to learn in a very short amount of time. 

Only, we’re teaching drones.”

Imagine you want your drone to track a particular 

car. To teach the drone which car to track, you can 

apply machine vision and deep learning techniques 

which work by aggregating large amounts of photo 

data to help the drone identify an object in a variety 

of situations. These algorithms take a significant wealth 

of data to train, however, and these substantial training 

sets are hard to obtain.

So what if you don’t have a lot of data, but you still 

need to tell the drone what it’s looking for, in real-time, 

using only the data it can collect from its surroundings?

Iannucci and his team, consisting of ECE researchers 

Ervin Teng, Joao Diogo de Menezes Falcao, and 

Cef Ramirez, are working on a number of projects to 

train drones through real-time deep learning. The first, 

called SMILE, uses a camera mounted on the drone to 

take pictures of the drone’s current surroundings and 

send those images back to an operator on the ground. 

If you want the drone to track down a particular red 

convertible, for instance, some of the images it sends 

Drones in the Matrix

CMU-SV researchers are training drones through real-time deep learning

in the same way that Neo downloads knowledge in the Matrix. 

“This technology is broadly applicable. 

Not only can it track individual cars 

or people, but it can be used for...

inspection of industrial sites or 

pipelines.” Bob Iannucci, Distinguished Service Professor, ECE,

Carnegie Mellon University Silicon Valley

10 www.nasa.gov
www.nasa.gov/researchpark 11

NRP Post

back will contain the desired car, and 

some will not. Using a computer interface, the operator lets the drone know 

whether or not the object it’s looking for 

is in the image. After just a few minutes, 

the drone can identify the desired object 

in the images with enough accuracy to 

track it across distances.

This technology is broadly applicable. 

Not only can it track individual cars 

or people, but it can be used for...

inspection of industrial sites or pipelines.

Bob Iannucci, Distinguished Service Professor, ECE, Carnegie Mellon University 

Silicon Valley.

Just like Neo, however, drone operators don’t always have the luxury of 

practicing in the real world. Due to 

lack of time or lack of available data, 

training a drone to identify an object in 

space or navigate an environment in the 

real world can be challenging. It’s this 

difficulty that led the team to develop the 

Virtual Image Processing Environment for 

Research, or VIPER.

“Using a video game engine, we’re able 

to create a photo-realistic, virtual training 

environment, identical to the real-world 

environment the drone will be encountering,” says Iannucci. “By training a 

virtual drone to identify the desired 

object in the virtual world, then uploading that data to the real drone in the real 

world, the real drone will ‘remember’ everything the virtual drone learned.”

Because the training simulations are 

done in the virtual world, operators can 

run them much faster than real-time. 

In the future, by networking multiple 

computers running multiple simulations 

together, the time reductions are potentially limitless. And now, certain more 

dangerous tasks—such as navigating 

collapsed buildings or complicated 

industrial sites—can be 

done virtually, so 

that operators 

don’t have to 

worr y about 

expensive drones crash -

ing before they’re properly 

prepared.

“This technology is broadly applicable,” 

Iannucci says. “Not only can it track 

individual cars or people, but it can be 

used for many other things, such as inspection of industrial sites or pipelines. 

It may not teach them Kung Fu, but the 

variety of tasks that VIPER has the potential to teach drones to perform is virtually 

limitless.”
12 www.nasa.gov

NRP Post

NP-2017-11-02-ARC

Crowd-sourced Geodesy for 

Earthquake Hazard and 

Process Studies 

(CMU and USGS)

T

he problem and the opportunity: CMU 

and USGS propose to explore the utility 

of crowd-sourced cell phone GPS data for 

earthquake hazard and process studies. Their 

pilot work suggests that large numbers of less 

accurate cell-phone GPS displacements could 

yield earthquake parameters (Mw, geometry, 

slip distribution) similar to those derived from 

less dense, more expensive continuous GPS 

network data (see Figures). Their collaboration 

will explore not only earthquake geodesy, but 

also the computational and networking aspects 

of making such a monitoring system operationally feasible. CMU and USGS expect that this 

approach could have significant impacts not 

only in great earthquake scenarios such as large 

Cascadia subduction zone events, but also in 

regions with large population centers and less 

dense GPS coverage such as the Bay Area’s 

southern Hayward fault.

Overall Goal or MVP (minimum viable 

product): To produce real-time finite 

fault slip models based on offsets 

estimated from cell phone GPS locations.

NASA Research Park

Editor, Layout and Design: TED TRIANO

Phone: (650) 604-2NRP

Email: arc-dl-nrp-post@mail.nasa.gov NRP POST Website: www.nasa.gov/researchpark

THE

NASA Research Park wishes 

Kathleen Burton & Courtney Lopez 

farewell and best wishes!

NASA Research Park congratulates 

Geffory Lee

on his retirement!