NAMS-2 PWS DRAFT for SS Release Revised.pdf

NASA Academic Mission Services - 2 (NAMS-2) Performance Work Statement (PWS)

Date:TBD

Table of Contents 1 Introduction

2 Scope of Work

3 Core Requirements

3.1 Core Management

Contract Management and Administration

Contract Task Order Administration

Contract Reporting

Contract Compliance, Quality Assurance, and Workforce Qualifications

Training

Travel

Resource Scheduling

Resource Acquisition

Health, Safety and Environmental Policies

Risk Management

Government Property Management

3.2 Core Technology Area: Air Traffic Management Research (ATM)

ATM research on Urban Air Mobiliy (UAM) Airspace

ATM research for Autonomous Piloted Aircraft Operations

ATM research for a more collaborative traffic management

ATM research for the development of a digital transformation of the National Airspace System

(NAS) 13

Core Technology Area: ATM Deliverables

Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Requirements

4 15

4.1 Academic Methods

Academic Studies and Reviews

Future Workforce Training

Expert Instruction

4.2 ATM Research Safety and Mission Assurance

4.3 Advanced Technological Systems (ATS)

4.4 Nanoelectronics and Devices

4.5 Advanced Software for Digital Twin Systems

4.6 Quantum Computing Technology

4.7 Secure Airspace Architectures

4.8 Machine Learning and Data Mining

4.9 AAM National Campaign

5 Phase-In and Phase-Out

5.1 Phase-In

5.2 Phase-Out

6 Appendix

6.1 Acronyms

6.2 Applicable Documents

1 Introduction NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) has a primary focus on research and development (R&D) including fundamental scientific research, concept development, prototype testing, and new technology creation. The research supports ARC’s mission and NASA’s overall goals in aeronautics, science, space technology and human exploration.

ARC performs R&D in support of NASA missions in collaboration with other NASA centers, academia, other federal organizations, not-for-profit organizations, and industry partners. Many of ARC’s projects span multiple technological and scientific disciplines. The success of NASA and ARC missions demands leading edge technical and research expertise from both student and faculty researchers. ARC is a leader within the agency in forming and nurturing innovative partnerships to further these missions.

NASA Academic Mission Services-2 (NAMS-2) will provide ARC with capabilities to fulfill mission requirements from fundamental R&D through field-test deployments and operational missions.

2 Scope of Work This Performance Work Statement (PWS) describes the requirements for research support to be provided to the Aeronautics Directorate and the Exploration Technology Directorate at NASA ARC. The Contractor shall be responsible for the execution of the NAMS-2 performance requirements defined in this PWS. The work to be performed by the Contractor includes scientific research associated with air traffic management, advanced technology, nanoelectronics, and prototype software. The purpose of the contract is to meet NASA aeronautics and technology mission objectives, particularly the improvement of aircraft and airspace safety as well as the transition of advanced aeronautics technologies into future air vehicles. NAMS-2 includes a broad scope of research, including the development of new and emerging capabilities and technologies that will evolve over the life of the contract. The success of these activities at ARC depends on the successful completion of the work described in this PWS.

The services available under this contract can be provided to any NASA ARC customer as approved by the Contracting Officer (CO) if it is in the best interest of the Government. These services may also be provided to other NASA Centers and Government agencies to support project or mission objectives. The Contractor shall, except as otherwise specified, furnish all personnel, training, and management to perform the requirements in this PWS.

3 Core Requirements The core requirements of this contract include Core Management and Core Technology Area:

Air Traffic Management Research (ATM). The Contractor shall meet the requirements specified in this PWS in conformance with industry standards, equipment manufacturers’ recommendations, and all applicable federal, NASA, state, and local requirements, policies, and procedures.

3.1 Core Management

The Contractor shall comply with all the terms and conditions set forth in this contract and provide overall management and administrative functions to ensure that the proper resources are available and allocated to complete all contractual requirements; that required reports and documentation are prepared; and that the overall environment supports the research requirements for the entire performance period of the contract.

Contract Management and Administration The purpose of Contract Management and Administration is to ensure that the following requirements are effectively managed and implemented to support all activities covered in this PWS. These required services include, but are not limited to: Resource Scheduling, Property Management, Procurement, Health, Safety, Environmental, Mission Assurance, Training, Contract Reporting, and Configuration Management.

The Contractor shall provide all management and administrative functions to ensure that proper resources are available and allocated, and that required reports and documentation are prepared.

The Contractor shall:

• Manage the contract in a fiscally responsible manner fulfilling all requirements.

• Provide a well-defined, stable organizational structure with clear lines of authority and clearly identified interfaces for the Government.

• Provide staff with required initial and routine medical exams as required by applicable Health and Safety standards.

• Provide staff with the required training in safety, engineering and information technologies.

• Comply with all applicable NASA policies and procedures.

• Manage the resources allocated by NASA for specific tasks in a manner to ensure objectives are reached in accordance with established milestones.

• Provide a monthly report of the state of all tasks; identifying accomplishments, publications, deliverables and major milestones reached, as well as, problems and concerns over issues that may affect contract performance and recommended solutions.

• Provide property management to ensure accountability for annual inventory surveys and accountability verification forms.

• Provide risk management activities that will be used to ensure that Government has adequate insight into the risks associated with the Contractor’s ability to accomplish required work.

Contract Task Order Administration The Contractor shall develop all task proposals, conduct negotiations with the Government, and manage all task orders under this contract. The Contractor shall respond to all Contract Task Orders (CTO) (approximately 15-20 annually) as required in NFS 1852.216-80 Task Order Procedure and shall report Task Order financial and technical performance, as required.

Contract Reporting The Contractor shall deliver all reports in accordance with Section J.1 (a) X, Data Requirements Description (DRD), of this contract. These reports shall be current, accurate, and complete. The DRDs contain the applicable PWS section and shall be priced and delivered accordingly.

Contract Compliance, Quality Assurance, and Workforce Qualifications The Contractor shall provide procedures and management supervision to ensure compliance with applicable Government policies, regulations, and contractual requirements, including all applicable NASA Policy Directives (NPDs), NASA Procedural Requirements (NPRs), NASA Information Technology Security Handbooks (ITS-HBKs), NASA Technical Standards, Ames Policy Directives (APDs), and Ames Procedural Requirements (APRs), in their entirety. Those applicable documents are listed in the relevant sections that follow.

Successful contract performance requires a commitment to follow and comply with all written NASA Quality Assurance requirements in Section 6.2, Applicable Documents for NASA ARC and the Agency by the Contractor.

The Contractor shall meet applicable directives to ensure that all foreign national visitors and all employees have completed the required background checks, approvals, and clearance requirements for access to worksites (e.g., NASA Ames Research Center). Pertaining to foreign national employees performing work for NASA, the Contractor shall comply with NPR 1600.4A, Identity and Credential Management.

All software development for the sections in Core and IDIQ shall be conducted in accordance with NPR 7150.2D, NASA Software Engineering Requirements and NASA-STD-8739.8A Software Assurance and Software Safety Standard. The rigor of development depends on the software classification as defined in NPR 7150.2D. Each sub-project may have a different classification overall or among its software components. Generally the software is assessed as Class D, with a few cases of Class C. The Division provides plans for Software Development and Software Assurance that must be adapted for each sub-project.

In order to meet the above NASA standards, NASA has implemented processes around the Atlassian suite of software development tools. The Atlassian tools hosted by NASA include:

Confluence, JIRA, Agile, FishEye/Crucible, Stash, and Bamboo. A variety of software languages (e.g., C, C++, Python, Python data science packages, Java, LISP, MATLAB, SQL, Plotly/Dash, FishEye/Crucible, Stash, Bamboo, Shell Scripting, MySQL, JIRA, Confluence and Simulink) on a variety of platforms (e.g., Linux, OS-X, Windows, and VxWorks) are anticipated. Application frameworks include Eclipse, Spring, Atlassian tools, Jenkins, GitHub, and HTMLx.

The Contractor shall comply with the revised standards Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 when developing, procuring, maintaining, or using electronic and information technology. Information and communications technologies (ICT) acquired incidental to this contract do not have to be modified to confirm to the revised 508 standards.

Training The Contractor shall provide a management structure to effectively manage a qualified professional and technical workforce engaged in a wide range of research and development (R&D) support services. The Contractor shall have the organizational structure, internal procedures, and administrative support to effectively manage the work performed under this contract. The Contractor shall provide any necessary secretarial and financial services for their employees, as well as all training required to perform work under this contract. The Government will not provide any such support services or training. All contractor personnel shall have required certification and skills to perform the tasks they are assigned to without further training provided by the Government.

Travel Contractor personnel may be required to travel for short periods of time to attend planning meetings, participate in industry site visits, attend technical conferences, or support requesting organizations.

The Contractor shall:

• Comply with NFS 1852.242-71, Travel Outside of the United States. All international travel must be necessary to the efforts required under the contract and otherwise in the best interest of NASA and be approved in advance by the CO.

• Comply with to NPR 1660.1C, NASA Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism, NPR 9710.1, General Travel Requirements, and High Threat Security Overseas Seminar (HTSOS) training requirements.

• The Contractor shall submit all foreign travel requests to the cognizant ARC Foreign Travel Coordinator for review/approval at least 30 days before the planned departure date, so that an electronic country clearance (eCC) can be obtained. The applicable program, project, agreement, or contract should be referenced in the supporting documentation included with the request.

Resource Scheduling The Contractor shall maintain an operation and maintenance schedule of resources (e.g. labor, equipment, facilities) that are allocated for activities performed under this contract.

Resource Acquisition The Contractor shall acquire resources not otherwise provided by the requesting organization (e.g., staff, equipment, supplies, software) as needed to support the successful completion of all requirements under this contract.

For NASA acquisitions, the Contractor shall coordinate with the COR to utilize the Agency’s Enterprise License Management Team (ELMT) when acquiring software for NASA in accordance with the NFS 1807.70 (Enterprise License Management Team (ELMT) Program), when possible, to ensure the Agency is getting the best price value or utilizing existing contracts. Additionally, the Contractor shall consider utilizing the Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) or GSA government- wide contracts, when possible, before procuring any software or hardware in support of the NAMS-2 requirements. For non-NASA acquisitions, Contractor shall follow appropriate organizational policies and directives.

The Contractor shall procure services, consumables, equipment, tools, and parts, such that they meet stated specifications and are available when required for contract performance, in accordance with:

• Applicable Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and applicable NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) clauses

• Contract clause requirements (not covered in the FAR or NFS)

• Subcontracting Plan Goals

• NPR 7120.5F, NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements

• ARC clause 52.230-90

Health, Safety and Environmental Policies The Contractor shall comply with the health and safety requirements contained in APR 8715.1, Ames Health and Safety Manual, the system safety and mission assurance requirements in NPR 7120.8A, NASA Research and Technology Program and Project Management Requirements, and the environmental policies and procedures contained in NPD 8500.1, NASA Environmental Management. The Contractor shall provide a Safety and Health plan as required by DRD xx.

The Contractor shall ensure compliance with applicable safety and environmental regulations for all performance under this contract in accordance with APR 8715.1, Ames Health and Safety Manual, NPR 8715.3D, NASA General Safety Program Requirements and APR 8553.1, Ames Environmental Management System. The Contractor shall:

• Ensure all personnel receive job specific medical exams as required by current NASA, ARC, OSHA, EPA, and other applicable federal, state, and local regulatory agency standards.

• Ensure all personnel are trained in procedures, policies, and practices in accordance with current NASA, ARC, OSHA, EPA, and other applicable federal, state, and local regulatory agency standards.

• Ensure all operators of equipment that are required to be licensed or certified have current licenses/certifications.

• Participate in monthly NASA safety inspections and safety awareness training in accordance with Ames Safety Accountability Program (ASAP).

• Demonstrate commitment to continuous improvement in safety and health and communicates that commitment to workers.

• Ensure procedures are put in place to continually identify workplace hazards and evaluate risks.

• Ensure safety and health hazards from routine, non-routine, and emergency situations are identified and assessed.

• Perform an initial assessment of existing hazards, exposures, and control measures and follow on with periodic inspections and reassessments, to identify new hazards.

• Ensure that any incidents are investigated, and corrective action are implemented.

• Ensure managers, and supervisors receive training on safety concepts and their responsibility for protecting workers’ rights and responding to workers’ reports and concerns.

• Ensure all workers are trained to recognize workplace hazards and to understand the control measures that have been implemented.

Operational field environments are reviewed through the Airworthiness and Flight Safety Review Board (AFSRB), which is described in APR 8715.1, Ames Health and Safety Manual and requires compliance with NPR 8715.5B, Range Flight Safety Program. Human-in-the-loop experiments are reviewed by the Ames Human Research Institutional Review Board (HRIRB), which is described in APR 7170.1, Human Research Planning and Approval Guidelines.

Risk Management The Contractor shall ensure that the CO and the COR have awareness and insight into all risks associated with the Contractor's ability to accomplish requirements. The Contractor shall include identification, assessment, prioritization, and mitigation of any risks within their Task Orders in accordance with NPR 8000.Agency Risk Management Procedural Requirements.

Government Property Management The Contractor will provide equipment and software unless other specified in the GFP list.

The Contractor shall follow NPR 4200.1H, NASA Equipment Management Procedural Requirements, APD 4200.2, Equipment Management, and NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) clause 1852.241-1, Installation Accountable Government Property regarding assignment and movement of Government-owned equipment. The Contractor shall follow NPR 4300.1C, NASA Personal Property Disposal Procedural Requirements regarding property disposal. The Contractor shall provide information upon request for the following topics: Property Assignments, Property Location, Unused Equipment, and any required data needed for the NASA Property database (currently at https://equipment.nasa.gov).

The Government shall provide all on-site Contractors with computers and maintenance services for equipment requiring access to the NASA internet protocol (IP) space through the Agency’s enterprise provider or other CIO-approved IT equipment necessary to meet the requirements. Any on-site Contractor-provided equipment connected to the NASA IP space shall comply with NFS 1852.204-76, Security Requirements for Unclassified Information Technology Resources, NASA IT Security Handbook ITS-HBK 2810.02-05 (Security Assessment and Authorization External Systems-pending update), and as required by DRD No.XX.

The Government may provide, or the Contractor may acquire property Government Furnished Property (GFP) or Contractor Acquired Property (CAP) that is not currently in the NASA Property database. The Contractor shall manage this property, as well as Installation- Accountable Government Property (IAGP), in accordance with NPR 4200.1H, NASA Equipment Management Procedural Requirements, and APD 4200.2, Equipment Management, or applicable requesting organization policy, to ensure accountability. The Contractor shall generate a NASA Form 1018, “NASA Property in the Custody of Contractors”. The Contractor shall submit annually a NASA Form NF 1018 (NASA Property in the custody of Contractors) to the Supply and Equipment Management Officer (SEMO) and Industrial Property Officer (IPO).

3.2 Core Technology Area: Air Traffic Management Research (ATM) The Contractor shall support NASA R&D in Air Traffic Management (ATM), which consists of research and software development, and support the objectives and missions of the ARMD project technology area, primarily supporting NASA researchers and engineers performing R&D. Areas of expertise relevant to this work include aeronautical engineering, modeling and simulation, artificial intelligence, operations research, software engineering, system engineering, electrical engineering, machine learning, and discrete and continuous control. For the duration of this contract, some technical areas are anticipated to phase out and others will be initiated. The Contractor shall incorporate the expert guidance and relevant findings of academic and industry best practices and the latest research results.

https://equipment.nasa.gov/

The Contractor shall support research, development, integration, testing, demonstration, and deployment through activities spanning initial concept development (technology readiness level (TRL) - 1) and evaluation through limited simulations and testing through in-situ field tests at operational ATM facilities (TRL-7) or in operational field environments, often in collaboration with Government and industry partners. The Contractor shall participate in field testing/demonstrations (as specified in the above deliverable tables), as defined by the R&D plans defined by NASA project offices. The work environment may include field sites such as air transportation-related facilities, or other NASA or non-NASA Government facilities.

Background:

The ATM research projects are focused on enabling the safe and equitable use of airspace that can accommodate today’s commercial air transportation vehicles and small and large unmanned aircraft systems (UAS, or drones), as well as novel vehicles and airspace uses, such as (but not limited to) space traffic management, electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis, and autonomous cargo vehicles. The research is also focused on further researching, building and demonstrating NASA’s urban air mobility (UAM) concept, enabling software and system architectures modeled after NASA’s UAS traffic management (UTM) paradigm, and enabling the introduction of services responsible for (but not limited

to) airspace resource scheduling, separation, conflict detection and resolution, integration of weather and noise predictions, and digital transformation of the National Airspace System

(NAS).

The following paragraphs provide a brief description of the ATM research areas.

Urban Air Mobility (UAM)/Advanced Air Mobility (AAM): The UAM effort contributes to the AAM concept with the goal to mature UAM operations in the NAS. The work on UAM operations research is focused on manned operations, developing a Concept of Operations (ConOps), and supporting the relevant flight tests and airspace infrastructure that demonstrate the potential benefit of AAM. The UAM research area will extend its scope to enabling medium complexity unmanned operations in urban environments flying at low altitudes (<5,000 ft), deliver airspace management software tools in support of flight tests, develop a roadmap describing the R&D required to deliver UAM airspace management for UAM Maturity Level 4 (UML-4) operations, and complete major areas of research. Research will be performed on airspace and flight operations around vertiports for the landing and takeoff of UAM vehicles.

UAM efforts will also develop and deliver the UML-2 Airspace Architecture requirements and guidance for standards development to stakeholders.

Autonomous Piloted Aircraft Operations: NASA seeks to enable normalized operations of large, remotely-piloted vehicles to increasingly-autonomous-piloted aircraft operations in the NAS.

This work involves collaborating with industry and the FAA to develop a research roadmap and Concept of Operations (ConOps), and to identify future needs and technologies to enable the integration of increasingly autonomous operations in the NAS. Such operations involve vehicles with greater range than typical UAM/AAM operations, utilizing pilots outisde the vehicle and missions outside of urban areas. NASA recently completed significant research in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the NAS Project to reduce technical barriers associated with integrating UAS into the airspace system. Leveraging that research, this research on large, remotely piloted vehicles will address significant barriers that remain toward enabling the routine access of UAS into the airspace system.

Collaborative and Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM): An extension of NASA’s UAS Traffic Management (UTM) R&D, NASA seeks to work with the FAA and industry to enable collaborative traffic management with the completion of UTM technology transfer and industry standards development. NASA is also developing a new traffic management system for Upper Class E airspace (operations that take place over 60,000 ft.), known as ETM. In preparation for future operations in this airspace, the research will identify additional use cases supporting the integration of these novel operations with traditional air traffic control (ATC) operations.

Digital Information Platform (DIP): NASA seeks partnerships with committed airline service suppliers to develop a reference implementation of a digital information platform, built mostly by industry, with NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) providing operational experience and expertise. This platform serves as the infrastructure that takes data from multiple sources and turns it into easy-to-use and accessible digital information for airspace services.

Partnerships with potential service suppliers seek to test the reference DIP, collaborating with NASA, the FAA, and the airlines. Several evaluations are scheduled throughout the DIP lifecycle to demonstrate quantifiable benefits to the airlines and to new entrants, including technologies related to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML).

ATM research on Urban Air Mobiliy (UAM) Airspace The Contractor Shall support NASA in foundational UAM airspace research to define system requirements, and developing the UAM airspace system and running National Campaign (NC) simulations with partners. The specific activities to support concept development, proof-of-concept implementations, simulations, and flight test activities under this work are:

• Provide software development, V&V testing and data analysis support to expand UAM capabilities for research. Includes analysis support for two to three UAM simulations on the conflict severity evaluation, flight performance models and separation service software and simulation tools.

• Explore, through directed research, autonomous applications in air traffic management in an appropriate simulation platform; includes simulation and analysis of performance and uncertainty models

• Accelerate a UAM airspace system and services development by conducting two to three simulations in support of-related activities in the ATM UAM research area. Specifically, provide:

o Support for development of experiment tests, including experiment plans and test execution procedures o Software support for system development, services development, and integration with partners for simulations; includes integration of UAM core, airspace services, and safety density metric software o Support for software release and related documentation o Support simulation analysis and related documentation o Deliver final simulation NPSU, ANSP, DSS software to relevant research areas and projects o Perform data analysis of simulations by developing scripts and algorithms to derive data from UDC and data pipeline or raw data. Deliver final analysis report.

• Support research activities designed to determine requirements for the development of candidate set of airspace services

• Software development of candidate set of airspace services, including conflict management and scheduling services

• Coordinate and engage other relevant organizations at ARC as needed for feedback on the software management plan

• Collaborate with the project management team to define criteria for software that requires a NPR 7150.2D compliance matrix

• Maintain the NPR 7150.2D compliance matrix and expand to other software efforts as needed and complete NPR 7150.2D Compliance Matrix Final Assessment for X4

• Oversee NASA-STD-8739.8A Software Assurance and Software Safety Standard requirements and conduct preparatory work needed for an internal software assurance Audit No.1 and Audit No.2

ATM research for Autonomous Piloted Aircraft Operations

The Contractor shall develop a technical Concept of Operations (ConOps) that incorporates the wide set of business interests and corresponding use cases. The ConOps will have the following characteristics:

o Inform common standards and requirements for industry o Address the main barriers of integrating operations into the National Airspace System

(NAS).

o Include identification of shortfalls, potential solutions, trade studies, and gap analyses for several key barriers and their interactions into the NAS.

o Support a gradual introduction of autonomous operations into the NAS with increasing levels of autonomy over time.

The Contractor shall

• Define three to four in-depth research activities to alleviate key technical and procedural barriers to the integration of these operations into the NAS.

• Conduct two to three trade studies for alternative ConOps solutions based on data analysis and fast time simulation.

• Document results from trade studies and present at a technical meeting.

• Conduct a fast-time simulation study to investigate functional allocation methodology and airspace impacts of conducting remotely-supervised operations with different ratios of operators to vehicles and separation delegation schemes. Evaluate functional allocation for the different ratios of operators

• Conduct a fast-time simulation study to investigate functional allocation and airspace impacts of merging and spacing remotely-supervised operations in the arrival stream, with different ratios of operators to vehicles.

ATM research for a more collaborative traffic management

To achieve the collaborative traffic management goals, expanding upon the UTM system and architecture (described above), the Contractor shall provide management to the software development team and employ Agile software development principles in software development.

The Contractor shall also conduct research and provide engineering support for architecture and concept alternatives that support UTM-inspired principles and mature the UTM concept. The Contractor shall:

• Develop and manage the software requirements for the UTM software to meet the needs of researchers and project goals, including reporting progress and risks and creating a risk mitigation plan.

• Delegate responsibilities among the software team to build capabilities based on the UTM architecture, such as Flight Information Management System (FIMS), Discovery and Synchronization Service (DSS), UAS Service Supplier (USS), and APIs used for data exchange among them and the operators.

• Contribute to research efforts on different ATM architecture and at least two concept alternatives that may be applicable to Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM).

• Contribute to development of ETM services, including software interfaces, management and monitoring functions, and other relevant services.

• Conduct at least three simulations and experiments to evaluate candidate concepts, addressing vehicles and mission types as specified by the established project plans.

• Analyze results from simulations and experiments and report results.

ATM research for the development of a digital transformation of the National Airspace System (NAS)

The Contractor shall provide software management and systems engineering support for the development of a digital information platform (DIP, described above) that will enable the widespread use of available air transportation data and the development of airspace services in collaboration with the FAA and industry. The Contractor shall support the evaluation of machine learning (ML) applications within the DIP system. The Contractor shall manage and develop software adhering to NASA processes. The Contractor shall:

• Collaborate with project management and software team to ensure adherence to the Software Development plan, implement the NASA software standard requirements (NPR 7150.2D and NASA-STD-8739.8A). Develop the Software Interface Control Document.

• Determine software requirements for Services, Data and Security; produce software and architecture design that meet requirements.

• Develop test strategy, unit tests, regression tests, test scenarios, design data collection strategy and deployment strategy according to the requirements for at least two demonstrations (to be defined).

• Develop plan for build, release and deployment for software for at least two collaboration demos

• Utilize agile software development principles to adapt to user requirements and improve the software based on user feedback.

• Develop software architecture, services interfaces, data models, and data base schema

• Provide software development and data analysis support for Machine Learning (ML) reference implementations of DIP services (as defined by the project plans).

• Develop and refine ML models, to be tested in at least two DIP demonstrations and tests

• Analyze ML model performance in relevant environments (to be defined by the project), collect data, develop analysis tools and scripts to collect research and operational metrics data; report on results

• Develop software and other capabilities to develop the DIP platform and its APIs

• Support demonstration activities with partners, support partner engagement, stakeholder feedback, training, field support, and technology transfer activities

Core Technology Area: ATM Deliverables

ATM UAM Airspace (PWS 3.2.1)

Contractor Deliverable Due Date Source code and Document: Complete critical simulation 03/30/2023 Document: PSU Network Evals with Industry 09/29/2023 Document: Airspace UML-2 Demonstration with Industry at FAA's WJHTC 09/30/2024 Document: Complete critical Simulation 02/03/2025

ATM Autonomous Piloted Aircraft Operations (PWS 3.2.2)

Document: Complete objectives and research requirements for Flight Demonstration #1

01/03/2023

Document: Complete Integrated Simulation(s) (to validate ) 09/11/2023 Document: Complete Trade Studies for Second ConOps 09/15/2023 Document: Generate First Demonstration Report 12/18/2023 Document: Complete Gap Analysis for Second ConOps 01/30/2024 Document: Complete objectives and research requirements for Flight Demonstration #2

09/16/2024

Document: Joint concept for digital negotiations of UAS Vehicle operations in the

NAS

09/30/2024

Document: Complete Epoch 2 ConOps 02/23/2025 Document: Complete Part-Task Simulation(s) to address high-priority barriers 03/17/2025 Document: Complete Integrated Simulation(s) 03/17/2025

ATM Collaborative Traffic Management (PWS 3.2.3)

Document: Results of ETM Connectivity Evaluation 02/28/2023 Document: Assess ETM-ATC Interactions in Multiple airspace domains 07/31/2023 Document: ETM Operational Maturity Level 2 ConOps update 07/31/2024 Document: Complete ETM Collaborative Simulation 04/30/2025 Document: Develop Simulation Environment and Demonstrate Targeted ETM-ATC Interactions

07/31/2025

ATM Digital Information Platform (PWS 3.2.4)

Document: Complete Collaborative Demo & Analysis Report #1 10/21/2022 Document: Complete Collaborative Demo & Analysis Report #2 11/17/2023 Document: Complete Collaborative Demo & Analysis Report #3 12/20/2024

4 Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Requirements This section details the general requirements for the IDIQ portion of the contract. Detailed requirements within the broader scope of work defined in this Section of the PWS may be executed under Task Orders. Requirements related to the detailed Core Technical requirements in Section 3.2 of this PWS may also be executed through a Task Order under the IDIQ portion of the contract. IDIQ task orders will be issued as firm fixed price or cost plus fixed fee. The Contracting Officer will determine the appropriate contract type for the requirements of each task order. Task orders will be executed in accordance with ordering procedures NFS 1852.216- 80.

4.1 Academic Methods

Background: The ARC Aeronautics Directorate and Exploration Technology Directorate perform research in technology areas, including Air Traffic Management, Advanced Technology Systems, Nanoelectronics and Devices, and Advanced Software. To remain on the cutting edge of research in aeronautics and exploration technology areas, NASA must also take advantage of the latest advances and findings from the technical community.

The Contractor may be required to provide technical inputs, key findings, trends, and approaches from academia and industry. Specifically, the Contractor may be required to incorporate academic resources with the goal of enhancing any of the technology areas of the PWS. The academic resources will also enable students from diverse and varied academic environments to support NASA R&D and provide training and exposure of a potential future workforce to NASA R&D in specific technical areas.

The Contractor may be required to support R&D efforts through conducting laboratory and field-based experiments, performing data analysis, and reporting results.

Academic Studies and Reviews The Contractor may be required to access academic resources in key technical disciplines (e.g., all forms of engineering, computer science, computer engineering, and human-computer interaction) to provide analysis of relevant NASA technical discipline areas. The Contractor may be required to summarize the latest technical and R&D methods and approaches, and data sources, as appropriate, based on academic resources and the latest findings from the technical community. The summaries will be documented in the form of presentations, briefings, papers, or face-to-face/virtual conversations.

The Contractor may be required to:

• Provide literature review and analysis of relevant NASA technical discipline areas and summarize the latest findings from academia and industry.

• Conduct quantitative studies, such as trade studies, or limited or extensive experimental investigations, literature reviews, or surveys of the technical community, as appropriate, to evaluate relative merits of possible methods.

Future Workforce Training NASA seeks to develop a future workforce that is well-versed in the technical areas that support its missions. Meaningful technical assignments that support NASA programs, which employ students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines will further NASA’s R&D goals and missions, as well as provide practical training opportunities. Technical projects may require students at the Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral level. Successful matching of technical assignments to a diverse student workforce will provide NASA with a high-quality candidate pool for future employment. The Contractor may be required to recruit students as workforce from academic institutions and will target minority-serving institutions and under-represented populations to create a diversified workforce. The Contractor may be required to:

• Identify university research talent at all levels – undergraduate, graduate, early career, and faculty – to perform technical tasks supporting NASA’s R&D and thereby advance NASA’s mission.

• Incorporate students and laboratories from a range of academic areas and educational institutions to support research areas of this contract.

• Collaborate with universities to develop a custom NASA curriculum relevant to aeronautics and exploration technology, for future workforce training programs.

Expert Instruction Academic experts possess expertise in cutting edge fields that NASA may have not yet adopted in solving mission challenges. The goal of Expert Instruction is to provide knowledge and insight about novel technical areas and promising applications in NASA missions, and specifically to expose NASA staff to technology areas that may benefit future R&D in integrated airspace operations and field demonstrations. The Contractor may be required to:

• Partner with local and national universities to design and implement advanced technical seminars, workshops, and/or technical interchange meetings, to discuss and explore how to integrate NASA capabilities with new technology trends typically outside NASA’s traditional R&D expertise.

• Provide resource materials (publications, white papers, etc.) from academic institutions to expose NASA staff on the novel or interdisciplinary R&D and technologies that show promise to grow NASA R&D in aeronautics and exploration technology.

• Provide individual technical experts for NASA staff, to explain cutting-edge methods, theories, approaches, or systems, that are needed to advance NASA R&D in aeronautics and exploration technology.

4.2 ATM Research Safety and Mission Assurance

NASA develops complex software as part of our important work for ATM. There are several NASA processes and requirements in place to ensure that our software is of the highest standards and supports the mission of our projects and programs.

The Contractor may be required to provide technical leadership and expertise to support Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) work for ATM research. The Contractor may be required to:

• Create the Software Development Management Plan for each research effort and sub-project.

• Create the NPR 7150.2D Software Assurance Compliance Matrix for each ATM sub-project.

• Maintain, and update as necessary, the ATM Software Development Management Plan.

• Ensure project compliance with relevant NASA requirements such as NPR 7150.2D

• Support ATM subprojects subject to Ames audits such as the Quality Audit, Assessment, and Review (QAAR)

• Support ATM projects requiring internal audits such as the Functional Configuration

Audit (FCA) and/or Physical Configuration Audit (PCA)

• Collaborate with Project Software Manager to define and establish technical processes for the ATM projects This includes managing the process for Software Assurance, Software Classification(s), and safety critical assessments.

• Update, review, and monitor adherence to the ATM-X Project Software Assurance Plan

• Ensure compliance with NASA Software Assurance and Software Safety Standard 8739.8

• Coordinate software assurance plans with Code AF Software Assurance manager and Code QS and ensure its alignment to NASA software assurance standards.

• Assist ATM sub-Projects with Software Assurance Planning and Implementation.

• Conduct Software Assurance Audits for the ATM project and Sub-Project Software

Manager(s) and report on its results.

• Track and report Software Assurance Metrics.

4.3 Advanced Technological Systems (ATS)

NASA has critical work in Advanced Technological Systems to support an airspace that is aligned with service providers through an area called Data & Reasoning Fabric (DRF). This DRF work has the goal of enabling the data exchange and management of the volumes of data that will be required for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) operations.

In development of a data service architecture necessary for the DRF work the Contractor may be required to:

• Verify integration between data and reasoning services with simulated vehicles accessing the data and reasoning services

• Integrate external data service and external reasoning service

• Analyze data-related system integration challenges and propose appropriate solutions

• Maintain conceptual, logical, and physical data models along with corresponding metadata

4.4 Nanoelectronics and Devices

The Contractor may be required to support the objectives and missions of the Nanoelectronics and Devices projects. The core focus of this project is in the development of flexible hybrid electronics for in-space manufacturing of electronics.

The Contractor may be required to:

• Deliver the design, modelling, fabrication and testing of several printed flexible hybrid electronic devices suitable for manufacturing on ISS or Gateway.

• The following devices may be expected of the Contractor: 1) A continuous-monitoring, skin-wearable stress sensor to measure the hormone cortisol excreted in sweat from crew members; and 2) A printed super capacitor to provide power to sensors.

• Ensure proper integration with supporting flexible hybrid electronic hardware from collaborating NASA Centers. Further integration of the technologies above will extend beyond the deliverable of each technology.

4.5 Advanced Software for Digital Twin Systems

The purpose of the requirements under this technology area requirement is to meet future aviation demands and opportunities of airspace operations. The focus of this research centers on digital twin operations, machine learning (ML), predictive analytics, data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve NextGen capabilities.

The Contractor may be required to:

• Provide technical expertise and support the development of concepts, including feedback to use cases and concept documents.

• Develop initial algorithms and models to capture essential ATM functions digitally, such as Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) or Letters of Agreement (LOAs) for the Digital Twin system, utilizing ML/AI or natural language processing (NLP) methods where applicable.

• Provide software development, testing and models for prototype digital software application.

• Provide technical training as needed by on tools and software for research participants.

• Design the prototype based on feedback from NASA researchers, project liaison and subject matter experts.

4.6 Quantum Computing Technology

NASA ARC explores the potential of quantum computing for computational challenges arising in future agency missions. Ames partners with domain experts across NASA, performs evaluations of emerging quantum hardware through partnerships with quantum hardware developers, and investigates quantum mechanisms that may be used to provide a quantum advantage. A key goal is to advance the understanding of quantum computing’s potential to impact challenging computational problems for NASA missions in aeronautics, space and the earth sciences. This approach will ensure communication in the denser and more autonomous air space of the future and help optimize planning and scheduling for space missions. Ames intends to devise quantum and quantum-classical hybrid algorithms for challenging combinatorial optimization problems in NASA applications.

The Contractor may be required to:

• Design performance and quantum metrics suitable for benchmarking SAAM (Scheduling Applications with Advance Mixers) quantum circuits

• Develop theoretical/numerical models of leakage in repetition and surface codes.

• Compile SAAM application instances to efficient circuits that match the architecture of the Rigetti QPU as part of SAAM benchmarking.

• Design and evaluate run results on parametrized ensembles of executable instances on Rigetti QPU, evaluating against performance metrics.

• Develop circuit formulations using mappings featuring advanced gates, digital-analog approaches

• Develop novel, or improve existing, quantum and quantum-classical hybrid algorithms for applications in condensed-matter physics (CMP), designed to leverage SQMS physical device properties and fit within device limitations.

• Develop initial methods for distributing and compiling quantum algorithms to multiple networked quantum (and classical) processors

• Evaluate DARPA QAFS performers’ approaches and results related to experiments on DARPA QAFS program’s quantum annealing hardware.

• Evaluate DARPA QAFS performers’ algorithmic approaches and results on applications.

• Develop automate processes and encourage tool adoption to make reporting, external visibility (webpages), and team coordination more effective and efficient.

• Analyze scrambling circuits, including effects of approximations on correlation.

• Estimate quantum resources (circuit depth, precision issues, runtime estimates) for next generation of SAAM quantum algorithm designs including software development to integrate techniques in compiler and simulators

• Develop theoretical models and algorithms for character benchmarking in multi-qubit circuits

• Perform estimation of quantum resources needed for the condensed-matter physics (CMP) applications designed to leverage SQMS physical devices, and new methods for physical approximations and provide comparison with state-of-the-art classical approaches, and advance the state-of-the-art classical approaches

• Develop algorithmic insights that support the development of DOE NQI SQMS physical devices in co-design with algorithmic improvements

• Extend theoretical model of noise statistics for device characterization experiments

• Develop advanced methods for distributing and compiling quantum algorithms to multiple networked quantum (and classical) processors

4.7 Secure Airspace Architectures

Ames is working to develop cybersecurity architectures and conceptual research solutions for securing future national airspace environments. One key effort is the development and demonstration of technologies that provide resiliency, data integrity and information privacy to the systems operating in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) environments. As a result, Ames is looking for architecture and conceptual research solutions that:

• Provide security solutions for the UAM airspace architecture

• Provide modelling and simulation support for UAM secure data exchange

• Provide methods for the detection of anomalous incidents in UAM environments

The Contractor may be required to:

• Identify data products that can be leveraged for machine learning for cyber threat detection.

• Develop and test machine learning models that can be used to detect cyber threats in UAM environments.

• Evaluate and identify hardware single board computers (SBC) that can be leveraged for machine learning in UAM environments.

4.8 Machine Learning and Data Mining

The goal of this work is to organize, extract, and present relevant information contained in a variety of real world data sets. To accomplish this, the work requires familiarity with efficient data manipulation techniques as well as various data mining and machine learning methods applied to ‘big data,’ i.e., data with large volume, high velocity, high variability, and changing definitions.

The Contractor may be required to:

• Assess the suitability of existing methods for the application problem being targeted, with articulation of potential inadequacies in these methods.

• Formulate and develop new methods or modifications of existing methods aimed primarily at the target problem, but also suitable for more general use.

• Develop software and visualization modes of presentation and interaction for transparency of the algorithms for users.

4.9 Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Campaign

Many of the most challenging issues in the advanced air mobility environment is the integration of airspace components.