Description
ACERO Project Overview The Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project is hereby requesting information through this notice from interested parties for the following: NASA’s ACERO project seeks to identify technologies that address relevant needs of the wildland fire management community and obtain information to define a partnership strategy for future technology demonstrations with NASA. Natural disasters, like wildfires, can result in the loss of life and cost the U.S. billions of dollars to recover each year. Over the past decade the rate and severity of wildfires in the United States has become detrimental to public health and to the economy. To help reduce these impacts, NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) is pursuing the integration of advanced aviation technologies into operation to better assist emergency responders by improving their efficiency, and safety. Current wildfire operations leverage a wide variety of aircraft that might be involved in an aerial attack of a wildfire: tankers releasing fire retardant, lead planes to guide them, helicopters dropping off field crews, aircraft from which smokejumpers arrive on the scene, uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) providing aerial ignition, etc. Responding to wildland fires requires extensive collaboration among a large group of stakeholders that, right now, is coordinated manually under austere conditions. Furthermore, effective decision-making in wildfire operations can also be challenging due to a lack of timely information and the overabundance of data that is presented to the decision-makers. The integration of new technologies has great potential to assist in overcoming these challenges for wildfire operations, however research and development is needed to enable the safe integration and adoption of these technologies into operations. The ACERO project will address these challenges by developing and integrating emerging airspace management and aircraft technologies, in collaboration with partners and stakeholders, and validating them in operational flight demonstrations to support wildfire operations. The ACERO project intends to support the maturation of requirements for critical technologies needed to evolve wildfire aviation operations for inclusion in future stakeholder acquisitions. The goal for expanded aerial operations is to enable sustained, 24-hour aerial firefighting to reduce the intensity and spread of a wildland fire, providing support for containment of the fire by ground crews. One key barrier to enabling sustained aerial firefighting is the inability to carry out aviation operations in degraded visual environments (DVEs). Darkness, smoke, haze, and other visually impairing meteorological conditions often limit aerial operations to 6-8 hours per day. These current limitations are due to the loss of situation awareness, and an elevated risk of collision, when operating in DVEs. Another key barrier is the fact that wildland fires often occur in remote, rugged areas with little or no means of reliable communication. The lack of reliable, consistent connectivity prevents the wildland fire community from achieving a common operating picture (COP) that provides timely information. ACERO Goals and Objectives The goal of the NASA ACERO project is to develop, integrate, demonstrate, and transition to operations, evolving NASA and industry aviation technologies to identify, monitor, and mitigate wildland fires and other emergencies, to enhance safety, improve efficiency of operations, and minimize economic loss. To meet this goal the ACERO project is focusing on four main objectives: Develop interagency concept of operations to ensure consistency of operational priorities, technology adoption, and programmatic alignment for national needs. Develop and demonstrate emerging airspace management technology to improve emergency responders’ efficiency and safety during a disaster. Develop and demonstrate new mission capabilities using emerging aviation technologies that support 24-hour aerial firefighting operations. Leverage public, private, and philanthropic partnerships, and other NASA mission directorate technologies to develop and demonstrate capabilities. ACERO Use Cases The ACERO Project will collaborate with other agencies and industry to demonstrate technology supporting the following wildland fire operation use cases: Persistent Monitoring – The persistent collection, processing, and dissemination of remote sensing information to inform timely decision-making for 24-hour aerial firefighting operations. Persistent Communication – The interoperable satellite, mobile, terrestrial, and aerial communication networks that provide reliable communication and connectivity to support airborne and ground operations for 24-hour aerial firefighting operations. Logistics – The use of remotely piloted aircraft, autonomy, and supporting technology that enable cargo and supply delivery to and around a wildland fire incident. Aerial Suppression – The use of remotely-piloted and/or optionally-piloted aircraft, autonomy, and supporting models and technologies that are necessary to conduct mission planning, provide a precision drop, verify water/retardant drop effectiveness, tactically re-task more precision drops, and reload water and/or suppressant. NASA Coordination with other Agencies The ACERO project is working with other projects within NASA, and with other state and federal agencies that support wildland fire management operations, to develop a concept of operations (ConOps) that establishes a vision of how technology can be incorporated into wildland fire operations in the future. Federal agencies currently involved in the ConOps development include, but are not limited to: US Forest Service (USFS) US Department of Interior (DOI) Department of Defense (DoD) National Guard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) The ACERO project will be collaborating with other NASA projects, other state and federal agencies, and commercial industry, to co-develop and demonstrate technologies to validate requirements developed in the ConOps. This request for information (RFI) will support ACERO’s development of a partnership strategy that enables these future demonstrations. Objectives of the Request for Information (RFI) The primary objective of this request for information is to learn about industry-planned investments in technologies that could support expanded and sustained wildland fire management operations in the following areas of focus: Airborne, space-based, and ground-based remote-sensing data collection, processing, and dissemination that support aircraft operations Decision-support information and knowledge-management systems Novel methods of wildland fire detection, prediction, and tracking[1] Airborne connectivity and communications solutions and technologies to enable interoperability between communication systems UAS traffic management and airspace management services UAS cargo and logistics operations automation technologies UAS and optionally-piloted platforms and automation technologies to support 24-hr aerial firefighting operations Safety enhancing technologies to reduce accidents during remote sensing, logistics, and suppression operations Aircraft operations autonomy Mission support autonomy for logistics and suppression operations Avionics systems and sub-systems Hazard perception and avoidance Situational awareness and operator displays (e.g. VR/AR) The areas of focus cover different aspects of the aircraft and ground operations and it is not expected that a respondent to this RFI has developed technology in every area of focus. Interested parties responding to this RFI should focus their response on one or more of the areas of focus. The secondary objective of this RFI is to support the development of a partnership plan for the ACERO project by gathering industry information to: Determine if there is sufficient industry interest and maturity of technologies in the areas of focus in order to determine NASA’s technology-development strategy Enable NASA to determine the most effective way to partner with industry to achieve the goal of enabling 24-hour aerial firefighting operations Obtain technical information on relevant industry efforts such as technology development cycles and overall plans related to the areas of focus Obtain schedule-related information to determine whether NASA’s planned research efforts will provide timely support to the developing technologies in the areas of focus The information gathered through this RFI will inform NASA’s partnership strategy and requirements and may be used to engage with specific partners. Considerations for Technologies Applied to Wildland Fire Environment Wildland firefighting can occur in a wide range of environments and some of these environments are austere and challenging for technologies that have been developed for other commercial purposes. The ACERO project is interested in technologies outlined in the areas of focus that have incorporated considerations that are relevant to wildland fire environments including, but not limited to: High Operator Workload High workload and stressful environments can challenge cognitive function, and technology that does not consider this environment can lead to cognitive overload and a reduction in task performance. Depending on the application of the technology, the operator may be well-trained in their firefighting task but only have limited training in the use of the technology. Technologies that incorporate task-based workload considerations in their user experience, and that have low training requirements, are desirable. Austere Environment Wildland firefighting can occur in locations that pose physical, environmental, and logistical challenges. For aircraft operations, these environments can reduce or degrade visibility, connectivity and communications, navigation, surveillance, and situation awareness. Furthermore, wildland fire operations need close coordination between ground operations and air operations, which increases the complexity of operations in these environments. The ACERO project is interested in technologies that have incorporated considerations for austere environments and addressed any dependencies on other technologies that may not be effective in those environments (e.g. limited connectivity). Interoperability Wildland firefighting is highly collaborative, but can also be complex in the wide variety of organizations that support operations. Federal, state, tribal, local, and international agencies support wildland firefighting, and commercial industry currently provides products and solutions to these agencies to address their needs. Some technology is currently used in wildland fire operations, however a barrier to broader adoption of technology is the interoperability between technologies to support operations, and to enable the required collaboration between agencies. The ACERO project is interested in technologies that have incorporated considerations for interoperability with existing technologies used in wildland fire operations, and the promotion of open standards and data to support interoperability with future technologies. Requested Content for RFI Responses Interested parties are requested to respond to this notice with an information package, due no later than 1:00 pm PDT, October 15, 2023, that shall be submitted via https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/acero-rfi. Any proprietary information must be clearly marked. Submissions will be accepted only from United States companies. This is a request for information only. It is not a procurement commitment to procure services, or a request for proposals. FAR 52.215-3 Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (https://www.acquisition.gov/far/52.215-3 ) is hereby incorporated. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by NASA to form a binding agreement or contract. NASA is under no obligation to issue a solicitation or to enter into any agreement or award any contract based on this RFI. NASA will not pay for any information solicited. No evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. NASA reserves the right to share all information received in response to this RFI throughout the Government and its support services contractors and to use all information submitted in response to this RFI in NASA's formulation of one or more solicitation(s) seeking competitive proposals related to initiatives described herein. NASA is not requesting competition sensitive or export-controlled data that requires protection. However, if it is necessary to submit competition sensitive data to answer any of the questions in this RFI, that data should be clearly segregated and marked as sensitive. NASA will protect such data from public disclosure to the extent permitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other laws and regulations. Additionally, any International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) or Export Administration Regulations (EAR) restricted information should be appropriately labeled in response to the RFI. Although information contained herein represents current program content and acquisition planning, it is subject to change. The information package should be submitted in MS Word (10-page limit). Responses can be for any or all the questions specified in this RFI. Please include the following: Name of Organization, Primary Point of Contact (Name, Position, Email), Secondary Point of Contact (Name, Position, Email) Company Description (e.g., US based, OEM, avionics manufacturer, automation manufacturer, experience with creating certified aviation products, etc.). Concept of Operations and Technology Description (limit: 5 pages) Brief description of the technology and concept of operations Relevance to addressing challenges for 24-hour wildland fire operations, Existing/prior wildland fire testing for this technology, Existing/prior partnerships with wildland fire fighting agencies for the development and testing of this technology. Indicate which use case(s) you would be interesting in collaborating with NASA for future demonstrations Identify if the technology has been included with a response to the NASA solicitation: A.59 Technology Development for Support of Wildland Fire Science, Management, and Disaster Mitigation Describe your plan for technology maturation from the 2024 to 2030 Current technology readiness level (TRL)[2] Identify challenges that need to be overcome to operationalize the technology for wildland fire operations. Identify if the technology is currently funded to be developed to at least a TRL6 or if additional funding is needed to reach a TRL6. Describe approach and planned partnerships that you will leverage to operationalize and integrate the technology into wildland fire operations. How will your technology interoperate with other technology, processes, and/or procedures currently used in wildland fire management? What is the applicability of your products/technology in degraded visual environment? Include any other questions, comments, suggestions, clarifications, and data that would help the agency prepare for the ACERO activities and associated demonstrations. References NASA-Led Wildland Fire Workshop Reports May 2021 Workshop - Focused on pre-fire, during fire, and post-fire needs, report available at: https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/NASA%20ARMD% 20WILDFIRE%20MANAGEMENT%20WORKSHOP_6.1.2021_v13.pdf Feb. 2022 Workshop – Focused on understanding barriers in integrating science and technology into wildfire management, report available at https://aam-cms.marqui.tech/aam-portal-cms/assets/ki2yd52vavkccskc March 2022 Workshop – Focused on understanding top safety-oriented risks, gaps, and enabling technologies, report available at https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20220014721 [1] There are synergistic requirements for remote sensing, decision support, and wildland fire detection and tracking outlined in a NASA solicitation A.59 Technology Development for Support of Wildland Fire Science, Management, and Disaster Mitigation (https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary!init.do?solId=%7BC3183194-7A02-F6FA-48AD-D5BA1984CE84%7D&path=open), however this RFI is seeking information on technologies that support broader active wildland fire operations (e.g. logistics, suppression) which were not explicitly specified in A.59. Respondents to this RFI should identify if they submitted a response to the A.59 solicitation as well. [2] Technical Readiness Level scale is described in https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/458490main_TRL_Definitions.pdf