NASA's
Armstrong Flight Research Center
is interested in obtaining information from companies to identify
potential commercial capabilities for Microgravity Flight Services
(MFS) to provide brief periods of near zero, partial gravity, and
hyper-gravity conditions, collectively referred to here as
microgravity, and associated capabilities for payload integration,
safety, and airworthiness for various government research, technology
development, and training missions. The agency announced the MFS
effort in a Request For Information document released on Monday.
In the past, NASA successfully achieved
this mission and fully met the listed requirements by use of a
slightly modified C-9 (military variant of the DC-9 commercial
transport) aircraft flown, operated, and maintained by NASA flight
and ground crews. More recently, aircraft and flight services were
contracted by NASA to provide these services and were operated in
accordance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory
Circular (AC) 00-1.1A, “Public Aircraft Operations”. Under this
AC, NASA was responsible for determining the airworthiness and flight
safety of the contractor’s microgravity aircraft operations and
maintenance. Upon the completion of a NASA mission the aircraft was
returned to its original civil status and returned to service under
FAA airworthiness regulations. It was the responsibility of the
contractor to ensure compliance with all FAA regulations when
returning an aircraft to civil use.
The objective of each flight is to
accurately simulate the gravitational field present on the Moon,
Mars, or on an asteroid for research in areas such as fluid physics,
combustion, material sciences, and life sciences, engineering
development (for the International Space Station and other space
hardware programs); for education; and for astronaut flight crew
training.
The typical operation involves one or
more self-contained experiments that are installed on the platform
and activated in flight during the microgravity periods by a human
operator. Data is recorded, and experiments are often photographed.
Upon completion of the flight, the experiment is removed to be
refurbished and prepared for future flights. The experiments are
usually observed and/or tended during flights by a human
experimenter.
NASA is assessing the feasibility of
obtaining microgravity flight services on a purely commercial basis.
In such an operation, the provider will operate as a “civil
aircraft” and bears full responsibility for airworthiness, flight
safety, and mission assurance, and these services do not require the
Public Aircraft Operation (PAO – ref. AC 00-1.1A) requirement.
NASA will meet with contractors on
May 5 during a Virtual Industry Day meeting to discuss the Mircogravity
Flight Services effort and answer questions.
