Project to Advance the Integration of NextGen Capabilities into the National Airspace System

Sensis Corporation was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NextGen Airportal Project Technologies: System Analysis, Integration and Evaluation (SAIE). Sensis will perform a cost-benefit analysis of select NASA concepts and technologies (C&Ts) for the airportal environment (defined as terminal airspace down to the airport gate) and investigate the integration of the concepts into the National Airspace System (NAS). The program will provide NASA with a roadmap for the integration and simulation of C&Ts that will affect the safety, efficiency and capacity of airportal operations.

For this project, Sensis will first evaluate C&Ts by identifying benefit-creation mechanisms and appropriate evaluation metrics, perform evaluations using modeling and simulation tools and estimate costs associated with implementing the C&Ts. The C&Ts will be evaluated in terms of their potential benefit to increase airportal capacity and efficiency. Once the evaluation is complete, Sensis will identify critical work that is not currently being done to enable the most promising C&Ts to quickly move forward.

"This project draws on extensive Sensis experience in airportal concept design and analysis to help NASA mature the most promising NextGen concepts and technologies from research concepts into fielded solutions in the NAS," said Ken Kaminski, vice president and general manager of Sensis Air Traffic Systems. "These NextGen concepts and technologies will enable future capacity, efficiency and safety improvements in the airportal."

Sensis is a leader in modeling, simulation and analysis of the potential impact of future airspace and airport improvements, and has completed numerous modeling, simulation and analysis projects for NASA, JPDO, FAA and other industry and academic organizations. Through its fast-time and real-time capabilities, Sensis can generate current and future air traffic demand scenarios, provide system-wide or regional simulations to evaluate current and future air traffic management concepts, and analyze and visualize simulation results.