The LEARN Project explores the creation of novel concepts and processes with the potential to create new capabilities in aeronautics research through awards to the external community including university and industry teams. The LEARN Project incorporates a competitive review process of the external teams’ proposals to develop integrated solutions for complex technical problems captured in the ARMD strategic thrusts, followed by short duration activities for feasibility assessment. Follow-on phases of the most promising ideas are also funded. LEARN also utilizes challenges and prizes to the external community.  With these processes, NASA funds also help catalyze investments from the aerospace and non-aerospace communities toward solving problems aligned with NASA interests.

The NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) has been established to achieve the LEARN Project’s goals.  NARI will complement other ARMD efforts in seeking early-stage innovative concepts applicable to a broad spectrum of aeronautical challenges in the nation’s air transportation system by sponsoring research solicitations and by hosting future competitive challenges. The Institute will coordinate these efforts and communicate the outcome of the research conducted to interested parties both internal and external to NASA. ARMD’s goal is to mature the new concepts in order to infuse them into current ARMD research programs, to enable new avenues of aeronautics research that are not currently supported by ARMD program and project funds, or to achieve practical application by the aeronautics community.

Cutting edge customer driven research in two areas:

Aerosciences, including the completion and delivery of two new aerothermal CFD codes, a first ever validated shock layer radiation model, and an experimental validationdatabase, at flight-relevant enthalpy, for current and future generations.

EDL Materials, including the development and delivery of two new flexible TPS systems to enable HIAD missions, vastly improved ablator modeling capability, and improved polymer resins to enhance or enable future developments in woven, flexible and conformal thermal protection systems.

There is an increasing need to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) to perform missions of vital importance to national security and defense, emergency management, science, and to enable commercial applications. However, routine access by UAS to the NAS remains unrealized. 

The UAS community needs routine access to the global airspace for all classes of UAS. Based on this need, NASA's UAS Integration in the NAS Project identified the following goal: To provide research findings to reduce technical barriers associated with integrating UAS into the NAS utilizing integrated system level tests in a relevant environment. These barriers include: a lack of sense-and-avoid concepts and technologies that can operate within the NAS, robust communication technologies, robust human systems integration, and a relevant environment for use in testing the developed technologies.

The project's goal will be accomplished by developing system-level integration of key concepts, technologies and/or procedures, as well as demonstrating those integrated capabilities in an operationally relevant environment. 

The project conducts research to address technical barriers in the following areas:

• Sense and Avoid (SAA) [synonymous with Detect and Avoid (DAA)] Performance Standards: Provide research findings to develop and validate UAS Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS) for SAA performance and interoperability.
• Command and Control (C2) Performance Standards: Provide research findings to develop and validate UAS MOPS for terrestrial C2 communication.
• Human Systems Integration (HSI): Provide research findings to develop and validate HSI ground control station (GCS) guidelines enabling implementation of the SAA and C2 performance standards.
• Integrated Test and Evaluation (IT&E): Develop a relevant test environment that is a live virtual constructive (LVC) distributed environment (DE), for use in generating research findings to develop and validate HSI guidelines, DAA, and C2 MOPS with test scenarios supporting integration of UAS into the NAS.

These activities support research within the aeronautics strategic thrust area 6. 

The Armstrong Flight Research Center is NASA’s primary center for atmospheric flight research and operations, with a vision “to fly what others only imagine.” We believe that flight validation and research is one of the crucial phases within the advancement of any NASA technology, and it is often the barrier to technology utilization by the private sector. We also believe that aerospace technology can be enhanced through flight early in the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) lifecycle. In fact, some research can be done only in flight. The CIF projects are examples of aerospace technologies that are theoretically advantageous but have had little TRL advancement or are at too early of a technology level for support through a NASA mission.

The focus for the program is on validating, developing, and testing new and innovative technologies.

The current technology areas for the projects included:
AFRC is currently looking into following Technical Capability areas (not in any priority order and not all inclusive):
1.    Small launch Space Systems
Develop small launch space systems such as horizontal rockets that could launch to orbit small free-flying space platforms (e.g., cuestas, nanosats, picosats).
2.    Altitude Compensating Rocket Systems
Design, build, and test altitude compensating rocket systems or sub-systems designed to operate the rocket efficiently across a wide range of altitudes.  Subsystems such as Altitude Compensating Nozzles are being considered.
3.    Aero Gravity Assist Systems
Design, build, and test an Aerogravity assist system which uses a close approach to the planet, dipping into the atmosphere, so the spacecraft can also use aerodynamic lift to further curve the trajectory.
4.    Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft Adaptive Controls
Develop and test adaptive controls architectures speci?cally tailored for application to launch vehicles.  Adaptive Controls for launch vehicles would include unique features of the  aerospace vehicle, such as control-structure interaction, propellant slosh, sensor performance, and actuator dynamics.  In addition, the analysis, veri?cation, and ?ight certi?cation framework for the control system must be addressed.
5.    Autonomous Systems
AFRC is exploring concepts for advanced autonomous systems and collaborative autonomous operations that could be applied across aerospace vehicles to enhance effectiveness, survivability, and affordability.
6.    Autonomy in a Safety Critical Framework
Armstrong Flight Research Center is interested in the flight demonstration of high level autonomy in a safety critical framework with applicability to man-rated air and space vehicles.  This high level of autonomy is enabled through the use of multiple sensor platforms and algorithms with high computational demands.  Increased computational capability through embedded high performance computing and implementation of resource efficient algorithms is needed to support this integration.  Research into embedded high performance computing using multi-core processors, FPGA, GPU, DSP and associated development of toolchains and algorithms targeted to these platforms is needed in order to reduce the Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) of the flight vehicles..
7.    Space Weather Systems
Design, develop, and test measurement systems to provide the capability for on-demand, validated, and archived radiation measurements related to human tissue and avionics silicon upset co