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Astronomers have found more than 6,000 exoplanets in the Milky Way. They've even begun to characterize the atmospheres of some of them. But the Milky Way has consumed many of its dwarf satellites. How have exoplanets fared in these remnants? How are they different? To answer those questions, astronomers have to find some of these planets, and a new survey is poised to do just that.

3 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s research into the field of Advanced Air Mobility looks to enable autonomous aircraft with complex capabilities such as carrying cargo or providing medical aid, as seen in this artist’s concept. The Data and Reasoning Fabric project out of Ames Research Center tested delivery of programs and information to these kinds of vehicles.Credit: NASA

One of the biggest goals for companies in the field of artificial intelligence is developing “agentic” or autonomous systems. These metaphorical agents can perform tasks without a guiding human hand. This parallels the goals of the emerging urban air mobility industry, which hopes to bring autonomous flying vehicles to cities around the world. One company got a head start on doing both with some help from NASA.

Autonomy Association International Inc. (AAI) is a public benefit corporation based in Mountain View, California, near NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. In 2022, AAI signed a Space Act Agreement with Ames to support the agency’s Data and Reasoning Fabric project, which aimed to support the transportation of people and cargo to areas previously unserved or underserved by aviation, and to provide reliable, accurate, and current data for aeronautic decision-making. 

“Inspiration to lean into data fabric to solve certain complexities came from our NASA partnership,” said AAI cofounder and the project’s industry principal investigator Greg Deeds. “Working on this project was a great experience. Working with NASA engineers and leaders gave us experience that we’ll carry forward in all of our products.” 

Greg Deeds looks out the window of a helicopter flying over Arizona during a test of Autonomy Association International’s data fabric technology in collaboration with NASA. Through multiple evaluations above Phoenix, the testing proved the capabilities of the company’s Digital Infrastructure Platform. Credit: Autonomy Association International Inc.

Similar to how clothing fabric is made of intertwined threads, a data fabric comprises intertwined data sources. While a data fabric built by a tech company may include data from a few different cloud service providers, NASA’s Data and Reasoning Fabric can also use information provided by local governments and other service providers. By viewing airspace as a large data fabric, an autonomous vehicle can take in data and requests from the cities and towns it flies over and prioritize responses between them.

Working with Ken Freeman, principal investigator of the project at Ames, AAI and NASA performed four testing adaptations of the data fabric technology in the air over Arizona. Using hardware and software developed by AAI, the flights tested advanced air mobility passenger flights and the use of a drone for rapid delivery of medical supplies from urban to rural areas and back, while sending new tasks to the aircraft in flight. A helicopter stood in for the drone and air taxi, flying over towns, universities, tribal lands, and the airspace around Phoenix Sky Harbor airport and obtaining data and programs given to it from different places.

“We’re focusing on the digital infrastructure building blocks of smart cities and regions of the future,” said Jennifer Deeds, chief operating officer and cofounder of AAI.

In the years since the original NASA project, the company has cultivated relationships and customers abroad, including companies in agriculture, real estate development, and industrial food production using its system to aggregate and manage data. Released in 2024, the company’s Digital Infrastructure Platform uses the same technology originally designed for the NASA flight test. A new, “agentic” version followed not long after, able to retrieve necessary AI programs with minimal interaction. 

As AI unlocks innovation across American industries, NASA is equipping its commercial partners with the keys, using proven technology to generate breakthrough solutions. 

Learn more: https://spinoff.nasa.gov/  

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Details Last Updated Nov 18, 2025 Related Terms

• Technology Transfer & Spinoffs
• Ames Research Center
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Spinoffs
• Technology Transfer

Explore More 6 min read NASA Data Powers New Tool to Protect Water Supply After Fires

When wildfires scorch a landscape, the flames are just the beginning. NASA is helping U.S.…

Article 2 months ago 5 min read From Supercomputers to Wind Tunnels: NASA’s Road to Artemis II Article 2 months ago 3 min read NASA, Partners Push Forward with Remotely Piloted Airspace Integration  Article 2 months ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics

Ames Research Center

Advanced Air Mobility Mission

NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) research will transform our communities by bringing the movement of people and goods off the ground, on…

Data and Reasoning Fabric

Aeronautics

3 min read

Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s research into the field of Advanced Air Mobility looks to enable autonomous aircraft with complex capabilities such as carrying cargo or providing medical aid, as seen in this artist’s concept. The Data and Reasoning Fabric project out of Ames Research Center tested delivery of programs and information to these kinds of vehicles.Credit: NASA

One of the biggest goals for companies in the field of artificial intelligence is developing “agentic” or autonomous systems. These metaphorical agents can perform tasks without a guiding human hand. This parallels the goals of the emerging urban air mobility industry, which hopes to bring autonomous flying vehicles to cities around the world. One company got a head start on doing both with some help from NASA.

Autonomy Association International Inc. (AAI) is a public benefit corporation based in Mountain View, California, near NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. In 2022, AAI signed a Space Act Agreement with Ames to support the agency’s Data and Reasoning Fabric project, which aimed to support the transportation of people and cargo to areas previously unserved or underserved by aviation, and to provide reliable, accurate, and current data for aeronautic decision-making. 

“Inspiration to lean into data fabric to solve certain complexities came from our NASA partnership,” said AAI cofounder and the project’s industry principal investigator Greg Deeds. “Working on this project was a great experience. Working with NASA engineers and leaders gave us experience that we’ll carry forward in all of our products.” 

Greg Deeds looks out the window of a helicopter flying over Arizona during a test of Autonomy Association International’s data fabric technology in collaboration with NASA. Through multiple evaluations above Phoenix, the testing proved the capabilities of the company’s Digital Infrastructure Platform. Credit: Autonomy Association International Inc.

Similar to how clothing fabric is made of intertwined threads, a data fabric comprises intertwined data sources. While a data fabric built by a tech company may include data from a few different cloud service providers, NASA’s Data and Reasoning Fabric can also use information provided by local governments and other service providers. By viewing airspace as a large data fabric, an autonomous vehicle can take in data and requests from the cities and towns it flies over and prioritize responses between them.

Working with Ken Freeman, principal investigator of the project at Ames, AAI and NASA performed four testing adaptations of the data fabric technology in the air over Arizona. Using hardware and software developed by AAI, the flights tested advanced air mobility passenger flights and the use of a drone for rapid delivery of medical supplies from urban to rural areas and back, while sending new tasks to the aircraft in flight. A helicopter stood in for the drone and air taxi, flying over towns, universities, tribal lands, and the airspace around Phoenix Sky Harbor airport and obtaining data and programs given to it from different places.

“We’re focusing on the digital infrastructure building blocks of smart cities and regions of the future,” said Jennifer Deeds, chief operating officer and cofounder of AAI.

In the years since the original NASA project, the company has cultivated relationships and customers abroad, including companies in agriculture, real estate development, and industrial food production using its system to aggregate and manage data. Released in 2024, the company’s Digital Infrastructure Platform uses the same technology originally designed for the NASA flight test. A new, “agentic” version followed not long after, able to retrieve necessary AI programs with minimal interaction. 

As AI unlocks innovation across American industries, NASA is equipping its commercial partners with the keys, using proven technology to generate breakthrough solutions. 

Learn more: https://spinoff.nasa.gov/  

Read More Share

Details Last Updated Nov 18, 2025 Related Terms

• Technology Transfer & Spinoffs
• Ames Research Center
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Spinoffs
• Technology Transfer

Explore More 6 min read NASA Data Powers New Tool to Protect Water Supply After Fires

When wildfires scorch a landscape, the flames are just the beginning. NASA is helping U.S.…

Article 2 months ago 5 min read From Supercomputers to Wind Tunnels: NASA’s Road to Artemis II Article 2 months ago 3 min read NASA, Partners Push Forward with Remotely Piloted Airspace Integration  Article 2 months ago Keep Exploring Discover Related Topics

Ames Research Center

Advanced Air Mobility Mission

NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) research will transform our communities by bringing the movement of people and goods off the ground, on…

Data and Reasoning Fabric

Aeronautics

In a successful transplant in a man with brain death, scientists prevented the immune system from attacking a genetically modified pig kidney for 61 days, the longest such an experiment has lasted

A thin crescent moon and dark skies could give watchers a clear view of this astronomical event

Some ants kill the queens of another species and take over their colonies, but we now know at least one species gets workers to do the dirty work for them through a kind of chemical subterfuge

Some ants kill the queens of another species and take over their colonies, but we now know at least one species gets workers to do the dirty work for them through a kind of chemical subterfuge

The discovery that fat is a communicative organ with a role in everything from bone health to mood is forcing a rethink of how we view our bodies

The discovery that fat is a communicative organ with a role in everything from bone health to mood is forcing a rethink of how we view our bodies

For decades, the Amazon rainforest has quietly absorbed vast quantities of human-generated carbon dioxide, helping to slow the pace of climate change. Recent evidence, however, suggests that this vital natural buffer may be weakening – though uncertainties remain.

To help close this critical knowledge gap, European and Brazilian researchers have gathered deep in the Amazon to carry out an ambitious European Space Agency-funded field campaign.

Twenty years ago Forbes.com sent hundreds of thousands of messages to the future. Here’s what happened next

When written knowledge is more ephemeral than ever, how can we pass on what’s important?

Black holes and quantum mechanics present a paradox about the preservation of information

Designing nuclear-waste repositories is part engineering, part anthropology—and part mythmaking

A ridiculous but instructive thought experiment involving deep time, plate tectonics, erosion and the slow death of the sun

By exploring the edge of the solar system, astronomers have estimated how long our star stuck around its siblings after birth.

The post The Sun Left Home in a Hurry appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

At this point in history, astronomers and engineers who grew up watching Deep Impact and Armageddon, two movies about the destructive power of asteroid impacts, are likely in relatively high ranking positions at space agencies. Don’t Look Up also provided a more modern, though more pessimistic (or, unfortunately, realistic?), look at what might potentially happen if a “killer” asteroid is found on approach to Earth. So far, life hasn’t imitated art when it comes to potentially one of the most catastrophic events in human history, but most space enthusiasts agree that it's worth preparing for when it will. A new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv, from Maxime Devogèle of ESA’s Near Earth Object (NEO) Coordination Centre and his colleagues analyzes a dry run that happened around a year ago with the discovery of asteroid 2024 YR4.

The same brain areas that help us map physical space help us chart social connections, and the best relationship cartographers have most clout

Scientific American’s editor in chief David M. Ewalt reflects on a 20-year experiment in e-mailing the future

Video: 00:02:09

Copernicus Sentinel-6B was launched on 17 November 2025, ready to continue a decades-long mission to track the height of the planet’s seas – a key measure of climate change. The satellite was carried into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.

Sentinel-6B follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, which was launched in 2020. The mission is the reference radar altimetry mission that continues the vital record of sea-surface height measurements until at least 2030.

Copernicus Sentinel-6 has become the gold standard reference mission to monitor and record sea-level rise. The mission’s main instrument is the Poseidon-4 dual-frequency (C-band and Ku-band) radar altimeter. Developed by ESA, the altimeter measures sea-surface height. It also captures the height of ‘significant’ waves as well as wind speed to support operational oceanography.