NASA International Space Apps Challenge

In the next 5 to 15 years, cities will face a dramatic increase in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, and drone-based services. This growth is driven by a rapidly expanding market: the global drone industry, valued at about USD 73 billion in 2024, is projected to reach over USD 160 billion by 2030, with commercial UAV revenues alone expected to triple to more than USD 40 billion in the same period. Such momentum points toward a future where urban skies are crowded with delivery drones, medical flights, emergency response vehicles, and passenger air taxis.

With this expansion come pressing challenges. Low-altitude airspace overlaps with bird migration paths, raising collision risks. Urban areas are filled with obstacles such as towers, cables, and antennas, which complicate safe routing. Without structured corridors and geofences, UAVs risk mid-air conflicts, noise pollution, and unequal burdens on certain communities. Environmental factors—heat islands, heavy rainfall, soil saturation, and strong winds—further constrain safe operations.

To prevent disorder in this new dimension of mobility, cities will need to design dedicated air corridors and geofenced zones. These routes must separate vehicle types, prioritize emergency missions, protect sensitive areas like schools and parks, and adapt dynamically to weather and environmental conditions. They must also coexist with natural ecosystems by avoiding critical habitats and reducing bird-strike risks.

By combining NASA Earth science data—covering heat, precipitation, soil moisture, elevation, air quality, and night-light growth—with urban transit and airspace maps, planners can build smart, equitable, and adaptive pathways for UAVs. This ensures that future aerial systems support commerce, health, and safety while minimizing risks to people, infrastructure, and nature.

This proposal is designed to urbanize air traffic for the cities of the future, using NASA Earth science data (heat, air quality, precipitation, soil moisture, elevation, and night-lights) along with urban mobility datasets (transit feeds, road networks, land-use zoning, FAA airspace data), plus data from partner space agencies and public datasets.

1. Identify the challenges of future city air traffic

The project begins by defining what problems need to be solved. These include:

• Safe movement of drones, vertical take-off aircraft, helicopters, and airplanes in crowded skies.
• Ensuring that these vehicles can deliver goods, transport people, and support emergency services without creating noise, accidents, or unfair service distribution.
• Preventing conflicts between air traffic and people on the ground, such as noise, heat, or pollution.

2. Gather data from satellites and ground sources

The second step is to collect the right kinds of data:

• Heat patterns: NASA’s thermal data show where cities are hottest, which affects where aircraft can safely take off, land, or hover.
• Air quality: Data on fine particles and pollution help planners protect neighborhoods already suffering from poor air.
• Rain and storms: Satellite rainfall maps and storm tracking show when certain routes may be unsafe.
• Soil moisture and flooding: Knowing where the ground is often wet helps prevent vertiports and landing pads from being built in unsafe locations.
• Elevation and terrain: Height maps ensure flight paths avoid mountains, tall buildings, or flood-prone valleys.
• Night-time lights: Satellite images of city lights reveal how fast different neighborhoods are growing and which areas are most active at night.
• Urban mobility datasets: Transit maps, road networks, and zoning rules show where people live, how they travel, and how air traffic can connect to existing roads, trains, and buses.
• Airspace data: FAA maps of restricted zones, airports, and permitted drone corridors define where aircraft are legally allowed.

3. Build a city “air traffic map”

By combining all of these data sources, the project creates a digital map of the city’s current and future airspace. This map will include:

• Corridors where drones and vertical aircraft can safely fly.
• Geofenced areas that protect schools, hospitals, wildlife zones, and residential neighborhoods from excess noise or risk.
• Safe emergency corridors for medical helicopters or disaster response.
• Connections between air routes and ground transport, so that a package or passenger can smoothly continue their journey on buses, trains, or cars.

4. Define rules for coexistence of air vehicles

The project will design rules that allow many different flying vehicles to share the same sky. This includes:

• Priority routes for emergency services.
• Delivery routes that avoid crowded housing areas.
• Passenger routes between central business districts and outer neighborhoods.
• Shared communication signals between all aircraft to avoid mid-air collisions.
• Dynamic rules that change based on weather, air quality, or special events (for example, closing certain corridors during storms or opening new ones for a large concert).

5. Involve city leaders and agencies

City leaders, transportation departments, and emergency services are included to make sure the plan matches real needs. For example:

• The city parks department helps define no-fly zones over parks and nature reserves.
• The public health department checks that routes do not worsen pollution in sensitive neighborhoods.
• Housing and zoning departments guide where vertiports can be built.
• Residents report noise, unsafe flights, or missing service through a mobile app linked to the planning system.

6. Create digital tools for decision-making

The project will create an online platform that allows city leaders and the public to:

• View live and historic satellite data layers (heat, pollution, growth).
• Explore planned air corridors and vertiports on an interactive map.
• Test different scenarios (for example: “What happens if we add 200 delivery drones?”).
• Compare environmental impacts, such as changes in air quality or noise.

7. Implement pilot corridors and monitor outcomes

Once the digital plan is complete, the city can test small-scale corridors:

• A medical supply corridor between hospitals.
• A delivery corridor between a distribution center and a business district.
• An emergency route for fire or disaster response.

Sensors and satellite data are then used to measure how these corridors affect noise, heat, and pollution, and to adjust the system if needed.

8. Evaluate success and expand

Finally, the project measures success by checking:

• Fewer conflicts between drones and people.
• Equal access to air services across all neighborhoods.
• Improvements in quality of life, such as faster emergency response, reduced congestion on roads, and reduced emissions.
• The ability to scale the system to cover more neighborhoods and more types of vehicles.

This plan creates a pathway to urbanizing air traffic safely and fairly, supported by NASA Earth science data, urban datasets, and cooperation with city leaders and residents.