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The Airborne Science Program maintains the aircraft and sensor assets to support the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and science objectives, so funded SMD investigators have priority access to the facilities FORMS is the primary means for requesting and scheduling airborne measurements and flight services through the NASA Airborne Science Catalogue. This system was designed to allow researchers that are funded by NASA or other agencies to have access to unique NASA aircraft, as well as commercial aircraft with which NASA has made contracting arrangement
SMD maintains the aircraft and sensor assets to support SMD programs, so funded SMD investigators have priority access to the facilities. Excess capacity is available to approved investigators of our sister Enterprises within NASA and our interagency partners, and - on a full-cost reimbursable basis - to others seeking the unique capabilities of the SMD facilities.
All the facilities are available on a fee-for-service basis, although because SMD maintains the basic capability, only the marginal cost of the actual missions is charged to approved SMD investigators. User fees are based on the flight hour cost (e.g. pilots, inflight engineer, fuel) and mission-specific engineering and deployment costs. User fees are paid by the investigator's funding sponsor's Research Program or directly from the investigator's grant funds.
A funding sponsor is the manager of the Research Program under which the grant or contract is issued. Current NASA SMD program managers who are also funding sponsors are listed here.
An approved SMD investigator is one with a NASA/SMD grant or contract, normally awarded competitively in response to an SMD research announcement. Other approved investigators may include those sponsored by other Enterprises within NASA or by our interagency partners whose research is shown to be aligned with SMD's own research objectives. Missions for non-SMD investigators will be approved on a case-by-case basis. Missions that do not benefit NASA or SMD research objectives will not be funded by the SMD program, and must pay for the facilities under a full-cost reimbursable basis, and in addition, must demonstrate that the NASA SMD facilities provide a unique capability that is not available through the commercial remote sensing industry.
The only way to be formally approved and scheduled on an SMD airborne science facility is to submit a Flight Request. The Flight Request form is available from the ARC Earth Science Project Office. Flight Requests may be filed at any time, however, NASA SMD issues an annual call for Flight Requests approximately 6 months before the beginning of the fiscal year, usually between March and April of the year, with submittals due in June. Requests are reviewed and the facilities scheduled for the year, usually within the 1st quarter of the fiscal year. Therefore, flight requests submitted outside of thecall letter process are filled only if time is available.
For advanced planning, we also maintain a 5-Year Plan for each platform. The 5-Year Plan is used for longterm asset planning and to resolve schedule conflicts. Although a time slot on a particular platform may be 'reserved' for time-critical missions, such a reservation does not actually allocate the platform to a particular user or mission. Reservations are placed on the 5-Year Plan only with the approval of the Airborne Science Manager. Guidelines for those who want to reserve future time slots:
- Reservations may be made by calling the Airborne Science Program Manager or the Airborne Science Offices at DFRC or WFF.
- The reservation must be requested or endorsed by the funding sponsor;
- Reservations should indicate the desired platform, geographic location of the mission, instruments to be supported if known, and an estimate both of weeks and flight hours.
- The first to reserve the resource usually has the priority in the event of a schedule conflict. Other requirements such as unique seasonal or platform capabilities will be considered.
- The reservation MUST be followed up with an actual Flight Request after the call letter for the appropriate fiscal year is issued.
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