Suggested Searches

The outline of a small white plane with a blue stripe is mostly silhouetted in the gold light of a setting sun.
An early shuttle launch
A small handheld mobile device sits on a wooden table. A person is touching the screen.

Airborne Science Missions and Projects at Ames

active projects

5

subject matter experts

4

Ames poc

Matthew Fladeland

Strategic Tac Radio and Tac Overwatch (STRATO)

The Strategic Tac Radio and Tac Overwatch (STRATO) system is designed to provide real-time fire observations and last-mile communications with firefighters from stratospheric platforms. By providing persistent communications to a wildfire response team for a week or longer, STRATO is expected to offer capabilities beyond the currently used tethered balloons, which have a limited range and coverage area. By achieving station-keeping at altitudes up to 70,000 feet above ground level—to be demonstrated in flight testing—the STRATO will be able to provide communications to incident response teams in areas with no cellphone coverage.

Click here to learn more about STRATO about Strategic Tac Radio and Tac Overwatch (STRATO)
A group of roughly 20 firefighters walk in a line away from the camera, in yellow longsleeve shirts and white hard hats. There is brown shrubbery in the foreground, and the group is walking toward a copse of trees in the distance which is partially obscured by tan smoke, which also fills the sky.
Firefighters perform a firing operation on the Boulder fire in August 2024 while using STRATO-enabled TAK (Team Awareness Kit) devices to enhance situational awareness.
o Colorado DFPC Center of Excellence for Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting/Austin Buttlar

Mission Tool Suite (MTS)

MTS pulls together all flight resources — planning, communication, and situational awareness for NASA airborne missions as well as real-time telemetry from airborne and spaceborne platforms — in one place and allows accessibility in flight and from the ground simultaneously and in real time.

Click here to learn more about MTS about Mission Tool Suite (MTS)
Map of bright colors including yellow red and green and blue showing the MTS
The ASP Mission Tool Suite provides a means for visualizing the position of the aircraft and instruments during the course of the mission. Such information is made more useful when compared with or overlaid upon other datasets and model outputs used for mission planning and science data analysis. Additionally, ASP Mission Tool Suite facilitates communication between mission team members to enable analysis and discussion of multiple data sources to help plan and execute science missions.

Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF)

ASF conducts engineering development of remote sensing instrumentation and real-time payload communications systems and supports their operational use on science field campaigns. The ASF maintains a suite of facility instruments that are made available for use by NASA-approved research projects, with all resulting data being made available free of charge through public archives.

Click here to learn more about ASF about Airborne Sensor Facility (ASF)
Official logo for the Airborne Sensor Facility at NASA Ames.
Official logo for the Airborne Sensor Facility at NASA Ames.

High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS)

High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) are emerging aircraft and balloon-type technology that can host payloads and provide services from the stratosphere. One potential HAPS use case is to provide wireless communication services for mobile devices, such as LTE, to wildland firefighters who often operate in locations without terrestrial wireless communications coverage.

Click here to learn more about HAPS about High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS)
Photo of a HAPS high-altitude platform station which is long
A high-altitude platform station (HAPS, which can also mean high-altitude pseudo-satellite or high-altitude platform systems), also known as atmospheric satellite, is a long endurance, high altitude aircraft able to offer observation or communication services similarly to artificial satellites
NASA/Tom Tschida