Aircraft Cyber Security and Information Exchange Safety Analysis for Department of Commerce

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation (NextGen) program is a long-term modernization and transformation of the current National Airspace System (NAS) into a more effective and coordinated decision-making system. NextGen provides a more reliable, secure, and dependable aviation capability for both users and operators ensuring more capacity, throughput, and safety. This research delineates a high-level Safety Risk Assessment (SRA) related to NextGen technologies, specifically Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) as well as Aircraft Access to System Wide Information Management (SWIM) network (AAtS). Other communication mediums such as Mode-S or ADS-B transponder are also data exchange and broadcast capabilities in the aircraft can also be prone to lower level safety risks primarily because of an inability to ensure information security

Sharing Airspace: Simulation of Commercial Space Launch Impacts on Airlines and Finding Solutions

As space vehicles travel through the national airspace systems during the launch and re-entry stages, many believe that the increasing commercial space activities will have significant impacts on commercial aviation. Airlines, in particular, are apprehensive about the immediate negative effects in terms of flight time delays, uncertainties, and costs and are increasingly expressing their concerns to government. Meanwhile, the commercial space launch industry is advancing innovation and fueling state economic growth. Hence, the safe and effective integration of commercial launch activities into airspace is of national concern. Finding an equitable solution for commercial space and for commercial airlines is clearly a mission of national aviation authorities. This study uses simulation modelling with Total Airspace and Airport Modeler (TAAM) to analyze the potential impacts of commercial space vehicle launch activities on airlines, but also to examine possible solutions to minimize airspace closures and allow for equitable air space use while maintaining safe operations for all. Our preliminary results show moderate increases in fuel burns and total flight time delays associated with a single horizontal launch operation, due to the forecasted growth of airline traffic within the hazard areas of launch activities. By varying times of airspace closures, we analyze alternative scenarios by assessing the relative benefits of possible responses to ATC needs and strategies

Commercial Space Transportation: A Simulation and Analysis of Operations Impacts on the United States National Airspace System and Airline Stakeholders

Agenda: Background on space launch activity Research problem and objective Methodology Results Implications Future researc

UAS Surveillance Criticality

The integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the national airspace system (NAS) poses considerable challenges. Maintaining human safety is perhaps chief among these challenges as UAS remote pilots will need to interact with other UAS, piloted aircraft, and other conditions associated with flight. A research team of 6 leading UAS research universities was formed to respond to a set of surveillance criticality research questions. Five analysis tools were selected following a literature review to evaluate airborne surveillance technology performance. The analysis tools included: Fault Trees, Monte Carlo Simulations, Hazard Analysis, Design of Experiments (DOE), and Human-in-the-Loop Simulations. The Surveillance Criticality research team used results from these analyses to address three primary research questions and provide recommendations for UAS detect-and-avoid mitigation and areas for further research

Sharing Airspace: Simulation of Commercial Space Horizontal Launch Impacts on Airlines and Finding Solutions

Commercial space transportation is becoming more affordable and accessible. Consequently, we expect to see significant expansion of commercial space launch activities in the coming decade. As space vehicles travel through airspace during the launch and re-entry stages, they potentially disrupt the regular operations of traditional users. This paper estimates the potential economic and operational impacts of commercial space horizontal launch activities on airlines under various launch scenarios using predictive fast-time simulation modeling, focusing on Cecil Air and Space Port in Jacksonville (Florida) and the rules governing the national airspace system (NAS) in the United States. Our results indicate that the existing 4-hour airspace closure rule impacts a significant number of flights, resulting in flight time delays, additional flight distance and fuel burn, as well as other direct operating costs. Safely reducing the duration of airspace closures could serve as a simple solution to mitigate the impacts on airlines and other traditional NAS users. More importantly, treating our studied launch vehicle as an aircraft and opening its departure/arrival corridor to air traffic during a horizontal launch and return would potentially reduce the impacts on airlines significantly, depending on the location of the spaceport, planned flight paths and the trajectory of the launch

Aircraft Access to System-Wide Information Management Infrastructure

Within the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) NextGen project, System Wide Information Management (SWIM) program is the essential core in facilitating the collaborative access to the aviation information by various stakeholders. The Aircraft Access to SWIM (AAtS) initiative is an effort to connect the SWIM network to the aircraft to exchange the situational information between the aircraft and the National Airspace System (NAS). This paper summarizes the highlevel design and implementation of the AAtS infrastructure; namely the communication medium design, data management system, pilot peripheral, as well as the security of the data being exchanged and the performance of the entire system. The research work led to the design and implementation of a reliable data storing and exchange system between the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) (pilot peripheral to the AAtS network) and the SWIM network architecture. Issues such as cyber-security, performance, availability, and quality of service in the AAtS are investigated and mitigation approaches toward more secure and efficient service provided to the aircraft and to NAS are discussed

Therapeutic Potential of Microvesicles in Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine of Ocular Diseases With an Especial Focus on Mesenchymal Stem Cells-Derived Microvesicles

These days, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), because of immunomodulatory and pro-angiogenic abilities, are known as inevitable factors in regenerative medicine and cell therapy in different diseases such as ocular disorder. Moreover, researchers have indicated that exosome possess an essential potential in the therapeutic application of ocular disease. MSC-derived exosome (MSC-DE) have been identified as efficient as MSCs for treatment of eye injuries due to their small size and rapid diffusion all over the eye. MSC-DEs easily transfer their ingredients such as miRNAs, proteins, and cytokines to the inner layer in the eye and increase the reconstruction of the injured area. Furthermore, MSC-DEs deliver their immunomodulatory cargos in inflamed sites and inhibit immune cell migration, resulting in improvement of autoimmune uveitis. Interestingly, therapeutic effects were shown only in animal models that received MSC-DE. In this review, we summarized the therapeutic potential of MSCs and MSC-DE in cell therapy and regenerative medicine of ocular diseases

Mohammad Moallemi

Dr. Moallemi is a research associate at the ERAU NEAR laboratory. He received his Bachelor and Master degrees in Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He worked as a researcher at Carleton’s Advanced Research and Simulation lab for several years and has received numerous awards for his Ph.D. Thesis on simulation development. Since 2013, he has been working at the NEAR Lab on NextGen Tasks for the FAA as a researcher, primarily in simulation and systems. He is also a Principal Investigator in the Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE) program and has a comprehensive understanding of aviation/aeronautical standards. He is actively involved as a system engineer and researcher in 4D Trajectory-Based Operations via Aeronautical Telecommunication Network, investigating a simulation-based demonstration of automation in air traffic navigation. This is a 3-year ongoing project funded by FAA in collaboration with Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Electric, Honeywell, ARINC, and LS Technologies in Florida NextGen Testbed, Daytona Beach, FL. As PI, Dr. Moallemi led a team in a 1-year ongoing project demonstrating through simulation, the current surveillance data standards (Mode-S and ADS-B transponders) to be used in future TCAS and UAS detect and avoid systems, developed by RTCA-228. Additionally, he led the research in a 2 phase (2-year) project funded by FAA to investigate Cybersecurity and information integrity in the air to ground transfer of FIXM, AIXM, and WXXM messages.https://commons.erau.edu/stm-images/1090/thumbnail.jp