Federal award (DELIVERY ORDER, fiscal year 2023)
Recipient: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AEROSPACE ASSOCIATES
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2018-04-20 to 2018-09-30
Current total value of award: $481834.67
Description: CONVERGENT AERONAUTICS SOLUTIONS PROJECT ROUND 2 SYSTEMS ANALYSES SUPPORT.  THE TRANSFORMATIVE AERONAUTICS CONCEPTS PROGRAM (TACP) SOLICITS AND ENCOURAGES REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTS, CREATES THE ENVIRONMENT FOR RESEARCHERS TO EXPERIMENT WITH NEW IDEAS, PERFORMS GROUND AND SMALL-SCALE FLIGHT TESTS, ALLOWS FAILURES AND LEARNS FROM THEM, AND DRIVES RAPID TURNOVER INTO POTENTIAL FUTURE CONCEPTS TO ENABLE AVIATION TRANSFORMATION. RESEARCH IS ORGANIZED TO AGGRESSIVELY ENGAGE BOTH THE TRADITIONAL AERONAUTICS COMMUNITY AND NON-TRADITIONAL PARTNERS. ALTHOUGH TACP FOCUSES ON SHARPLY FOCUSED STUDIES, THE PROGRAM PROVIDES FLEXIBILITY FOR INNOVATORS TO ASSESS NEW-TECHNOLOGY FEASIBILITY AND PROVIDE THE KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR RADICAL AERONAUTICS ADVANCE. THE CONVERGENT AERONAUTICS SOLUTIONS (CAS) PROJECT IS ONE OF TWO PROJECTS UNDER TACP. CAS CONDUCTS SHORT-DURATION, TYPICALLY 18-30 MONTHS, ACTIVITIES TO ESTABLISH EARLY-STAGE CONCEPTS AND TECHNOLOGY FEASIBILITY FOR HIGH-POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS. THE CAS PROJECT CONDUCTS A YEARLY SELECTION PROCESS TO IDENTIFY THE MOST INNOVATIVE IDEAS. NASA INTERNAL TEAMS PROPOSE IDEAS FOR OVERCOMING KEY BARRIERS ASSOCIATED WITH LARGE-SCALE AERONAUTICS PROBLEMS. THE FOCUS IS ON MERGING TRADITIONAL AERONAUTICS DISCIPLINES WITH ADVANCEMENTS DRIVEN BY THE NON-AERONAUTICS WORLD TO MAKE POSSIBLE NEW CAPABILITIES IN COMMERCIAL AVIATION. CAS TEAMS, PRIMARILY CONSISTING OF RESEARCHERS FROM MULTIPLE NASA CENTERS PLUS INDUSTRY/UNIVERSITY PARTNERS, THEN CONDUCT INITIAL FEASIBILITY STUDIES, PERFORM EXPERIMENTS, TRY OUT NEW IDEAS, IDENTIFY FAILURES AND TRY AGAIN. AT THE END OF THAT CYCLE, NASA CONDUCTS A REVIEW TO DETERMINE WHETHER THE DEVELOPED SOLUTIONS HAVE MET THEIR GOALS, ESTABLISHED INITIAL FEASIBILITY, AND IDENTIFIED REAL-WORLD POTENTIAL.  IN AN ATTEMPT TO MAXIMIZE POTENTIAL TRANSITION OPPORTUNITIES, THE CAS PROJECT IS CONDUCTING INTEGRATED, MULTI-DISCIPLINARY SYSTEMS ANALYSES OF THEIR PORTFOLIO S ROUND 2 AWARDS. THE RESULTS FROM THIS ANALYSIS, ALONG WITH ANY BENEFIT ASSESSMENTS PERFORMED BY THE INDIVIDUAL CAS SUBPROJECTS, WILL PROVIDE POTENTIAL FUTURE COLLABORATORS WITH KEEN INSIGHT INTO THE POSSIBLE BENEFITS/APPLICATIONS OF THE RESPECTIVE ACTIVITIES. IN ADDITION, THE RESULTS OF THE CAS SYSTEMS ANALYSES WILL PROVIDE INSIGHT TO AERONAUTICS RESEARCH MISSION DIRECTORATE (ARMD) MANAGEMENT AT NASA HQ ABOUT THE SYSTEM-LEVEL IMPACTS OF THE CAS PORTFOLIO. FOR THIS TASK, THE CONTRACTOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PROVIDING INTEGRATED SYSTEMS ANALYSES RESULTS IN SUPPORT OF THE OVERALL CAS PROJECT PORTFOLIO EVALUATION.