Human Systems Integration Division

Members of the Human Systems Integration Division’s Airspace Operation Laboratory (AOL) presented research materials and moderated knowledge elicitation sessions at the ACERO Post-TCL1 Technology Transfer and UTM BVLOS Workshop on January 27, 2026.  The workshop brought together NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), industry partners, and public safety stakeholders for a full day of in-person activities at NASA Ames Research Center.  
 
ACERO team members had an in-depth exchange on research outcomes and operational pathways following the completion of Technical Capability Level 1 (TCL1). The workshop opened with program-level context on the TCL framework and ACERO objectives, followed by detailed briefings on the Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS) system, including flight test results, and performance analysis. 
 
Dr. Lynne Martin was on hand to present details of the human factors research that they have been conducting in the field with wildland fire response teams from multiple agencies. Afternoon presentations framed Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management Beyond Visual Line of Sight (UTM BVLOS) operations within the broader UTM ecosystem, covering public safety integration, key sites, and emerging regulatory pathways. The interactive breakout sessions included focused discussion on topics such as strategic deconfliction, conformance monitoring, and operational priority. The workshop concluded with synthesis of breakout findings, open discussion of upcoming opportunities, and closing remarks reinforcing collaboration toward safe, scalable BVLOS and emergency response operations.

The Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) research team at NASA Johnson Space Center is conducting a series of missions to simulate a year-long stay on Mars. Data collected during these missions will allow NASA researchers to study potential food system design, resource management, and other potential effects on physical and behavioral health and performance. Each mission will consist of four crew members living in the CHAPEA habitat, an isolated 1,700 square foot habitat.
 
In collaboration with this project, NASA Ames’ Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Group provides the mission software Playbook tool that enables planning, scheduling, and execution of crew timelines. Additionally, Playbook provides the essential capability of a multimedia chat interface that simulates the long communication latencies expected on Mars (up to 22 minutes delay). This is also the first time Playbook has supported timelines of this length, supporting search of hundreds of messages and activities – a new technical achievement for the software.

On November 20-21, 2025, Human Systems Integration Division researcher Jeff Homola participated in the High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS) Alliance Member Meeting in New York, NY. This meeting is the premiere industry event for higher airspace operators, associated technologies, and government stakeholders. Given NASA’s leading role in the research on integrating these unique aircraft into the airspace and the Human Systems Integration Division’s central role, Jeff attended and presented at the member meeting to brief attendees on NASA’s recent accomplishments and potential paths ahead. Much of this briefing focused on the successful real-time simulations that were conducted this past summer with partners Aerostar (Aerostar International LLC), Sceye, and AV utilizing the NASA-developed Higher Airspace Traffic Management architecture.

The impact of participating in this meeting was: 1) the continued solidification of NASA and US leadership in the approach to airspace integration in domestic and international airspace; and 2) define key points of reference and identify emerging needs with current and new collaborative stakeholders in charting a path toward operational implementation of new higher airspace technologies.

A paper written by researchers (Dorrit Billman, et.al.) in NASA’s Human Systems Integration Division won the “Best Paper” award for the Aerospace Systems Technical Group at the 2025 Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting. The paper, titled “Measuring Monitoring Skills Using Crew Briefing Task”, sought to address the issue of inadequate monitoring, and its contribution to aviation accidents and incidents over the years. NASA researchers were able to mitigate some of these risks by identifying the skills and knowledge needed for effective anticipatory monitoring and improving the training and assessment requirements to do so.

The work was supported by the Human Contribution to Safety group within the System-Wide Safety Project. It presented methods for online measurement of anticipatory monitoring using a briefing task that assessed the effectiveness of an on-line tutorial developing anticipatory monitoring skills. The monitoring skill takes on additional importance when projecting behavior of automated systems adds to the monitoring burden. The research provides new data types and develops practical, effective methods for improving and measuring monitoring.

The Cross-Program Integrated Data System (CPIDS) is a collection of digital solutions developed and managed by the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group in the Human Systems Integration Division at NASA Ames Research Center. These tools have facilitated data sharing across disparate computer systems and provided NASA with an interconnected set of data which can enable reliable decision support across a geographically and organizationally diverse workforce. Together, these tools have played an integral role in ensuring crew and vehicle safety for human spaceflight missions, and will support ongoing NASA missions, such as the upcoming Artemis II mission. 

Recently, the CPIDS lab delivered an important update to the Moon to Mars (M2M) Baseline Integration application to incorporate requirement waiver/deviation lifecycle status tracking. This change enables M2M Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) Leadership to make real-time decisions based on open waivers or deviations that could have a cross-program effect on the Artemis II mission. After this critical update, NASA leadership will be able to run reports broken down by impacted technical area, program, or across the entire M2M enterprise.

An article featuring the research of the Human Systems Integration Division’s Dr. Immanuel Barshi appeared in the November 2025 issue of the Swiss Air Force Flight Safety magazine. The article titled “People as the Architects of Safety” describes Dr. Barshi’s work under the Human Contribution to Safety (HC2S) subproject of the System Wide Safety (SWS) Project of ARMD/AOSP. The article describes the overall approach taken by the HC2S work and includes specific recommendations to be implemented by Air Force organizations and by individuals. Such recommendations include seeing variability as a strength rather than a threat to be controlled, creating error-tolerant structures, and promoting trust in the professional competence of employees.

The magazine which is published in both German and French concludes the article with the following: “If we want to further develop aviation safety, we must view people not as a risk, but as active producers of safety. This means putting the following into practice: A culture of learning instead of blame; A focus on improvement instead of control; Systems and processes that utilize human strengths instead of limiting them.”

Human Systems Integration Division researchers, who are part of the Air Traffic Management eXploration (ATMx) project, partnered with Collins Aerospace and Wisk Aero to assess the use of ground-based surveillance data as a potential service to support safe, routine operations for emerging aircraft operations.

On August 21, 2025, Wisk Aero piloted their Bell 206 helicopter on a route contained within the surveillance volume of Collins Aerospace’s Skyler ground-based surveillance system just north of Hollister Municipal Airport (KCVH). Throughout this test flight, Members of ATMx, NASA Ames Aeronautics leaders, and researchers from Wisk Aero observed the flight activity from NASA Ames’ Mission Visualization and Research Control Center (MVRCC), collecting valuable data which will be used to characterize the performance of the Skyler ground-based radar and its conformance to current standards.

Ultimately, this effort will enable new entrants and communities to better understand what infrastructure is needed for lower-altitude, air taxi-like flights that can help move people and cargo around in novel ways. NASA’s history of air traffic management research provides us with the insights to be able to inform integration of these new use cases into tomorrow’s airspace.

A new generation of aerospace innovators are looking for ways to quickly and efficiently transport people in a safe and environmentally friendly manner. In the not-too-distant future, passengers and goods are expected to routinely fly aboard a new breed of cleaner, smarter air vehicles. This represents a new and significant challenge to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) which is responsible for aircraft certification, pilot licensing, operating approval and airspace integration. Aerospace Cognitive Engineering Lab Rapid Automation Test (ACELeRATE) simulator. ACELeRATE is an adaptable fixed-base aircraft simulator focused on the investigation of the performance and interaction of pilots and increasingly automated aircraft systems.

Every year, thousands of wildfires burn roughly 1.5 million acres of land across the United States, causing billions in damages, and incurring around $2.9 billion in annual firefighting costs. Utilizing their expertise in air traffic management, advanced aviation technologies and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), NASA researchers and scientists are developing and testing new technologies to improve wildland fire coordination and operations for emergency response operators. Human Systems Integration Division researchers, home to the Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL), are playing a pivotal role in this endeavor.

The Cross-Program Integrated Data System (CPIDS) is a collection of digital solutions developed and managed by the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group in the Human Systems Integration Division. The CPIDS project implements common solutions and standard integration mechanisms using cost-effective, well-established technology to share data between disparate computer systems, leverage originating and authoritative sources, and minimize data conversions and process burdens

Upper-Class E Traffic Management (ETM) is an airspace management concept for National Airspace System (NAS) flight operations at or above FL600. As recent advances in technologies increase the demand in the stratospheric airspace, the diversity of vehicle types and the mixture of operating paradigms present new opportunities for a cooperative and interactive traffic management perspective.

ETM is part of the NAS Exploratory Concepts and Technologies (NExCT) Sub-Project of the Air Traffic Management-Exploration (ATM-X) project under the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD).

In support of NASA’s Artemis II mission, the Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center is helping to maximize the safety performance of Astronauts on this critical mission around the Moon. The aim of the Artemis II Speed and Wake Study was to investigate different interventions and their ability to assist with sleep and alertness for Astronauts during the Artemis lunar human spaceflight missions.

Playbook is a mission planning tool developed by the Division’s Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) group. It is a software platform designed to support the next generation of planning, scheduling, and execution tools for space exploration. Timeline scheduling includes ability to model activities, resources, and constraints as well as supports violation checking and resolution. Execution capabilities include procedure integration, tracking status of activities, and multimedia communication.