Cooperative and Coordinated Digital Flight
A capability of cooperative and coordinated flight operations founded on a platform of secure digital information exchange, distributed authority, and intelligent onboard automation for flight path management in four dimensions (lateral, vertical, & time) to promote ubiquitous, safe, seamless, and efficient airspace utilization for all operators and with flexible architectures that enable operators to achieve their unique and diverse mission objectives with minimal restriction.
Intelligent and Adaptive Automation
Collective learning and dynamic information processing that augments operations and optimization of shared resources, with built-in resilience through intelligent and adaptive automation and applications, such as enhanced weather forecasting and predictive routing efficiency.
In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance
A broad range of safety systems that proactively mitigate risks and demonstrate innovative solutions while ultimately ensuring safety to the community on the ground and in the airspace, employing services, functions, and capabilities that perform comprehensive monitoring and communication of the aviation system state, assessment of elevated risks, and mitigation actions to assure safety.
Micro-Services for Flight Operators
A diverse marketplace of appropriately authorized service providers distributed throughout the aviation ecosystem supporting flight operations with a wide range of micro-services to meet the varied needs of each operator in the local airspace.
Data and Decision Support Marketplace
A data-and-reasoning fabric providing an open virtual ecosystem of secured software infrastructure, tools, protocols, governance and policies to implement, manage and operate data sharing and reasoning services across the entire span of mobility for real-time decision support.
Digital Airspace
A capability of airspace and air traffic management founded on a platform of digital information and automation to promote safe, seamless, and flexible airspace utilization for all operators and considers airspace constraints dynamically by digital means to ensure system performance and safety.
We envision two community groups, day of use and contributing. Contributing stakeholders perform research, development, and implementation to ensure the day of use stakeholders are successful.
Day of Use Stakeholders
Contributing Stakeholders
Planning
In a future where Cooperative and Coordinated Digital Flight is prolific, pre-flight mission planning includes submitting a user-optimized flight plan to Micro-Services for Flight Operators where Intelligent and Adaptive Automation checks for any potential conflicts with other scheduled flight operations.
A Micro-Services for Flight Operators provider generates a dynamic time-dependent envelope of protected airspace using a mission risk assessment and space vehicle capabilities. Digital Airspace systems use the protected envelope to manage the launch vehicle dynamically and separate it from other traffic during the transition through airspace volumes below 60,000 feet, and through cooperative and coordinated volumes of airspace above 60,000 feet.
Operation
The space vehicle launches and begins the journey to space.
The protected airspace envelope ensures safety while minimizing disruption to other air traffic and is updated in real-time as the space vehicle gains altitude. A smaller volume protects other airspace users during nominal operations and a larger volume accounts for off-nominal scenarios. Digital Airspace ensures ubiquitous dissemination of these protected volumes to all operators. Flights conducted under Cooperative and Coordinated Digital Flight dynamically replan with these constraints considered.
Given the certification and the reliability of the space vehicle, an additional protected volume of airspace below the ARE may be required for reactive separation in case off off-nominal events.
Micro-Services for Flight Operators providers may access commercial space operator Adaptive Risk Envelopes via the Data and Decision Support Marketplace for real-time monitoring, assessment, and mitigation of mission safety risks. In-Time System-Wide Safety Assurance principles are leveraged by airspace users regardless of the vehicle type or payload.
Success
After reaching the boundary of space, the vehicle then transitions to the appropriate space traffic management paradigm.
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