In October, 2003, NASA embarked on ACAST (Advanced CNS Architectures and System Technologies) to perform research and development on selected communications, navigation and surveillance (CNS) technologies to enhance the performance of the National Airspace System (NAS).
The project will provide technologies to enable increases in capacity, efficiency, mobility and flexibility for users of the NAS.
- Read a summary paper of ACAST, CNS Architectures and Systems Research and Development for the National Airspace System, presented at the 2004 IEEE Aerospace Conference, March 2004 (PDF, 390 KB).
The ability to move information with very high reliability, availability, integrity and timeliness is a key requirement for enabling the advanced operational procedures, airspace automation systems, decision support systems and overall air traffic management processes needed to allow the continued development and expansion of air transportation in the coming decades.
Therefore, NASA started this project to develop communications, navigation and surveillance technologies to meet the future demands.
