NASA’s ACERO project uses drones and advanced flying technologies to help coordinate wildland fire operations better. This will give more time for fire suppression activities by aircraft, and also aid in communication between planes and people on the ground. In addition, they are looking into using drones for set fires which is a much safer, cheaper option compared to the usual way of doing it.
Every year, wildfires burn down around 1.5 million acres of forests and grasslands in the US. It’s very costly to put out these fires, costing an average of $2.9 billion over five years! Tackling these fire disasters is difficult and requires lots of help from firefighters, ground crews, and aircraft flown by lots of government agencies working together.
NASA is working with drones and special aviation technology to help firefighters in California. They are using a project called ACERO which stands for Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations, and it’s being led by the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
Aircraft are usually not able to fly during the night or when there’s a lot of smoke because it’s too risky for pilots. But drones can help since they can be operated by someone on the ground. It means that using drones for firefighting would make sure pilots are safe and help put out fires more efficiently.
Drones and other types of aircraft have improved a lot lately, but emergency responders haven’t yet adopted them. This is largely due to the lack of information about where these firefighting drones are operating. ACERO is making technologies that allow airplanes, drones, and ground crews to communicate with each other and share information during wildfire responses. That way everyone involved can know what’s going on without any conflicts between different machines. Software from ACERO will also help make sure there aren’t any airborne hazards in the area. With this kind of awareness, it’ll be possible to use drones in fighting fires and keep track of the blaze over time.
ACERO is improving its communication and information-sharing tools to help make airspace management smoother during wildland fires. These tools will also give firefighters access to better and more timely information, so that they can make better decisions in emergencies. They’ll be able to use drones for firefighting, sending gear down to any crews on the ground, and even providing radio connections if regular radio signals are weak or unavailable.
Drones are very useful since they can be used for something called prescribed burns. This means that experts are setting and controlling a fire to get rid of any dead brush on the land which could lead to large wildland fires. Usually, these prescribed burns are handled by a combination of helicopters, ground crews and drones but with more drones involved it will be not just safer but also cheaper than deploying people onto the ground. Whats even better is that these controlled Burns will secure a huge area at once making them even more worthwhile.
Uniting to Fight Fire
ACERO is joining forces with other government departments, scientists and businesses to create a game plan for how fires in the wild will be managed in the future. The project’s team are leading a group of agencies to evaluate and determine what ideas and technologies are needed to sort out possible issues. ACERO will work together with these organizations to include the new technology into their fire management strategies.
NASA will be working together with some companies and specialists who can help battle fires in the next few years. They will show off some new tech like airplanes made by NASA’s Aeronautics, Science, and Space Tech Divisions all in one place.
NASA’s ACERO project is based on earlier research. It helps reduce carbon emissions from aviation by 2050, which is a goal for the US. ACERO also supports advanced aircrafts like electric air taxis and drones to travel safely in the airspace. This research can help the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversee their journeys.
ACERO is a project supported by NASA. It’s managed by the Airspace Operations and Safety Program of the agency.
