Team testing hazardous-waste detection

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Wes Auldridge
  • Air Force Flight Test Center Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) --  Three organizations here are testing and demonstrating what could be the future of buried hazardous-waste detection, ultimately improving the Air Force's compliance with Department of Defense and Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Officials from the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center are working with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 769 and the base’s environmental management directorate. They are developing a technology demonstration to detect hazardous-waste sites from the air, said Jeannette van den Bosch, NASA Airborne Science Facility sensor manager and demonstration coordinator.

This demonstration is unique because the team is using a Marine CH-53E helicopter fitted with equipment owned by a private commercial company. NASA officials are providing the science and sensor-integration expertise.

"Our main goal with this is to determine if the sensor can detect hazardous-waste sites around the base," van den Bosch said. One of Edward’s missions is to comply with DOD’s Environmental Restoration Program.

The demonstration has not been a cut-and-dry operation, said van den Bosch. It began in March 2001, when Stephen Watts, Edwards Environmental Restoration Program project manager, contacted her. He questioned the availability of NASA thermal sensors to detect unexploded ordnance, small areas of soil temperature differences and buried trenches, pits and canisters.

Although NASA has thermal sensors, van den Bosch said they lacked the ability to detect such small targets.

In August 2001, van den Bosch contacted Watts with the information that a commercial company, Oilton, had an infrared sensor and proprietary-software package that could possibly detect such targets.

Van den Bosch contacted helicopter squadron officials to investigate the feasibility of using Marine Corps aircraft for the demonstration and to determine the procedures involved with getting approval to fly.

In December, van den Bosch said Naval Air Systems Command officials granted airworthiness to the integration process, and in March, approval was granted by the commandant of the Marine Corps.

"We're just happy we can help Edwards Air Force Base," said Marine Maj. Rick Ostermeyer, CH-53E project pilot. "We all live and work here; we're just doing our part to make it safer."

Van den Bosch said she was excited to receive the approval.

"Although it seemed like it took a long time to receive airworthiness approval, the Marine Corps told me this process could have taken as long as four years," she said.

After almost three years of planning and filing paperwork, the demonstration sorties were flown last week. Van den Bosch said the flights included a daytime sortie to validate the Oilton instrument global positioning system. Two sorties after sunset maximized the temperature difference of the targets for detection purposes.

"This demo is an example of how (an) alliance can work between Edwards and NASA," said van den Bosch.

"The most important part of this whole demonstration was that all of us collaborated on a specific mission with the possible outcome of making Edwards a safer place to work and live," she said.