Phase II year
2023
(last award dollars: 1730793555)
Electra, in conjunction with MIT and Harvard, has over the last two years been developing a stratospheric airborne climate observatory system (SACOS) based on solar-powered HALE UAPs for a variety of stratospheric climate science missions such as in situ measurements of atmospheric chemistry, radar surveys of ice sheets, and storm monitoring. In summer 2022, Electra built and successfully flew a 90-ft wingspan solar-electric HALE UAP tech demonstrator at the Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia; going from concept to first flight in less than five months. This tech demo is designed for an ice sheet radar survey science mission supported by Harvard University. The NASA SBIR Phase I effort advanced the conceptual design and avionics and propulsion system concepts; it also provided substantial stakeholder engagement opportunities for such science missions across NASA and other government agencies. This Phase II proposal consists of further avionics and propulsion system maturation followed by flight validation on a surrogate subscale platform. Once this has been done, Electra will integrate the systems onto its full-scale HALE UAP (which achieved first flight last summer, with simpler hobby-grade avionics) to execute flight validation on the large vehicle at low altitudes and eventually to include a stratospheric validation. A future Phase III will then consist of the development and delivery of the full HALE UAP capability objective vehicle to NASA. Anticipated
Benefits: Numerous climate science related missions identified by stakeholder engagements with the NASA Airborne Science Program (Matt Fladeland), Cryospheric Science Program (Thorsten Markus), and NASA Goddard (Dave Harding). Science Missions: High Latitude Ice Observations (Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse Forecasting, Greenland Glacier Flow Prediction), Direct Stratospheric Sampling (Sampling of Stratospheric Aerosols, In-situ Measurement of Storm Driven Stratospheric Chemistry), Drought, Wildfire, and Flood Monitoring (Coastal Flood Monitoring, Drought and Wildfire Prediction), Oceanic Surface and Cyclone Monitoring.
