New Mexico State University Physical Sciences Lab Drone Documents
| Submitted | Oct. 12, 2012 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Drone Watch
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, I hereby request the following documents:
1. any requests for proposals, proposals submitted by vendors, contracts, budgets or cost allocations for the purchase, research of and/or use of aerial drones, UAs, UAVs, and UASs (hereinafter “drones”);
2. any policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on use of drones, including on the legal process required (such as a warrant or court order), if any, before operating a drone;
3. any departmental records concerning use of drones now or plans to use drones in the future including:
a. the types of investigations or instances in which this institution is using or plans to use drones, or how it plans to support, manage or oversee the usage of drones by another department or office;
b. policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on storage requirements or procedures for video or static images obtained through use of drones, including retention times;
c. the altitude at which drones can or do fly;
d. drones’ ability to carry weapons.
I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Shawn Musgrave
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 12, 2012. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Vice President for Research
Dear Mr. Musgrave,
At NMSU the drones are operated by the Physical Science Lab. We are pleased to provide the information gathered from PSL that we are allowed to provide in response to your request. Please find the answers following your questions in the text of your email.
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On Oct. 12, 2012:
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, I hereby request the following documents:
1. any requests for proposals, proposals submitted by vendors, contracts, budgets or cost allocations for the purchase, research of and/or use of aerial drones, UAs, UAVs, and UASs (hereinafter “drones”);
*Most proposal related materials have proprietary information, ITAR information, and/or SBU information. This information is not releasable.
2. any policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on use of drones, including on the legal process required (such as a warrant or court order), if any, before operating a drone;
*Several items are requested here. Policies and guidelines are issued by the FAA and should be requested there. The legal process is governed by the FAA and should be requested there also.
3. any departmental records concerning use of drones now or plans to use drones in the future including:
*There are no specific departmental records on the use of drones. There are Federal reports that discuss some drone use but these are all FOIA and SBU protected documents. Any future use of drones are driven by contractual requirements.
a. the types of investigations or instances in which this institution is using or plans to use drones, or how it plans to support, manage or oversee the usage of drones by another department or office;
*NMSU conducts general RDT&E with UAS.
b. policies, guidelines, manuals and/or instructions on storage requirements or procedures for video or static images obtained through use of drones, including retention times;
*No such documentation exists for retention or storage of images.
c. the altitude at which drones can or do fly;
*In general, UAS can and do operate from the surface to over 95,000 ft. We operate drones from surface to about 18,000 ft.
d. drones’ ability to carry weapons.
*NMSU does not operate any weaponized drone. The news media has reported on weaponized drones from several countries. Please perform a web search to learn more information of interest.
I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.
In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Shawn Musgrave
Filed via MuckRock.com
From: Shawn Musgrave
Hello:
Thank you for your response to our request.
In your last email you indicated that "most proposal related materials have proprietary information" which is not releasable. Any non-proprietary information contained in such proposals, contracts and other documents related to acquisition, purchase or provision of services, equipment and the like is, however, releasable unless exempt by specific statutory provision. Please confirm, then, whether NMSU has any releasable documents pursuant to the first paragraph of our request, copied below.
I also hereby request any materials submitted to the FAA by the NMSU Physical Sciences Lab as part of its application for a certificate of authorization (COA) to operate drones/UAVs.
Please let me know if MuckRock can clarify any portion of this request.
Best,
Shawn Musgrave
MuckRock News
From: Vice President for Research
Dear Mr. Musgrave
In response to your follow-up requests PSL will review its proposal related materials and will determine what portions are releasable.
In addition, PSL will review COA application submissions to the FAA for information that is releasable.
Due to Thanksgiving and the availability of personnel we should have any releasable material identified by close of business 30 November 2012.
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 12, 2012. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thank you for your help.
From: Vice President for Research
Dear Mr. Musgrave,
NMSU/PSL has endeavored to respond to the follow-on request for information.
For the requested proposal material NMSU/PSL has reviewed existing proposals and has determined that none of the material is releasable due to intellectual property content and/or ITAR material.
For the material that NMSU/PSL has related to COA's we have included five files of actual COAs issued a few years ago to NMSU. We do not have actual material submitted to the FAA just the resulting COAs. We do not have in our records COAs for 2002 – 2003 and 2005 -2006 . At times the FAA extended COAs for periods of time and such an extension may or may not been the situation for those two years. COA material after that time is associated with an activity that is exempt from release.
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