An Update From NASA

Today, we head to the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California to speak with Parimal Kopardekar and Misty Davies. The Ames Research Center is one of ten NASA field centers.  Since 1939, Ames has led NASA in conducting world-class research and development in aeronautics, exploration technology and science aligned with the center's core capabilities.  Ames Research Center supports virtually every major NASA mission and initiative through its expertise in aerosciences, air traffic management, advanced computing and IT systems and many other capabilities.  Dr.

Dr. Parimal Kopardekar, or PK for short,  serves as the Director of NASA Aeronautics Research Institute.  In that capacity, he is responsible for exploring new trends and needs related to aviation in the areas of autonomy, aeronautics manufacturing, and advanced air mobility. Dr. Misty Davies is Deputy Project Manager for NASA’s System-Wide Safety Project. Her work is focused on predicting the behavior of complex, engineered systems early in design as a way to improve these systems' safety, reliability, performance, and cost.

In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, PK and Misty give us an update on the work NASA is doing to support unmanned aerial systems, they talk about the challenges of developing autonomous systems and they provide some insights into NASA’s Grand Challenge for Urban Air Mobility.