Technology vs. Terrorism

Abstract

This article focuses on how NASA is studying the ways of aircraft safety in times of troubles. Besides investigating aircraft safety, NASA searches for life beyond Earth. The agency is evaluating ways in which its biological and chemical sensors might give the average security person a very rapid analysis. Such devices need to provide “human-centered output” and tell security workers “what to do next” following identification of a chemical or biological agent. NASA plans to work with the Federal Aviation Administration to evaluate ideas like installing multilevel security in airports or combining chemical and biological sensors into dosimeter-like devices that are cheap, tiny, and fast. NASA’s chief technologist, Samuel Venneri, who took on the agency’s added role of associate administrator in 2000, said NASA was investigating algorithms for creating “protective bubbles” around prohibited areas so aircraft avoid obstacles on approach to landing. Such algorithms would guide flights along “precision curved paths,” possibly helping to alleviate current airport capacity problems as well.