<p>The Armstrong Flight Research Center is NASA&rsquo;s primary center for atmospheric flight research and operations,&nbsp;with a vision &ldquo;to fly what others only imagine.&rdquo; We believe that flight validation and research is one of&nbsp;the crucial phases within the advancement of any NASA technology, and it is often the barrier to technology&nbsp;utilization by the private sector. We also believe that aerospace technology can be enhanced through flight&nbsp;early in the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) lifecycle. In fact, some research can be done only in flight. The&nbsp;CIF projects are examples of aerospace technologies that are theoretically advantageous but have had&nbsp;little TRL advancement or are at too early of a technology level for support through a NASA mission.</p><p>The focus for the program is on validating, developing, and testing new and innovative technologies.</p><p>The current&nbsp;technology areas for the projects included:<br />AFRC is currently looking into following Technical Capability areas (not in any priority order and not all inclusive):<br />1.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Small launch Space Systems<br />Develop small launch space systems such as horizontal rockets that could launch to orbit small free-flying space platforms (e.g., cuestas, nanosats, picosats).<br />2.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Altitude Compensating Rocket Systems<br />Design, build, and test altitude compensating rocket systems or sub-systems designed to operate the rocket efficiently across a wide range of altitudes. &nbsp;Subsystems such as Altitude Compensating Nozzles are being considered.<br />3.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Aero Gravity Assist Systems<br />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.<br />4.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Launch Vehicle and Spacecraft Adaptive Controls<br />Develop and test adaptive controls architectures speci?cally tailored for application to launch vehicles. &nbsp;Adaptive Controls for launch vehicles would include unique features of the &nbsp;aerospace vehicle, such as control-structure interaction, propellant slosh, sensor performance, and actuator dynamics. &nbsp;In addition, the analysis, veri?cation, and ?ight certi?cation framework for the control system must be addressed.<br />5.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Autonomous Systems<br />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.<br />6.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Autonomy in a Safety Critical Framework<br />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. &nbsp;This high level of autonomy is enabled through the use of multiple sensor platforms and algorithms with high computational demands. &nbsp;Increased computational capability through embedded high performance computing and implementation of resource efficient algorithms is needed to support this integration. &nbsp;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..<br />7.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Space Weather Systems<br />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