While its cooperation with the UK government is a relatively new development, NASA already has numerous drone partners in the US. The agency has worked with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to draw up regulations for piloting drones, looked into whether Verizon's massive network of cellphone towers can help keep tabs on UAVs and even let Google come under its wing to conduct test flights. With NASA on board, it's hoped that Europe will establish similar systems to police drone traffic.

To monitor drones, NASA is considering the use of radars, satellites and mobile signals. The system would likely rely on the cloud to serve weather and traffic information, as well as data on restricted zones. It expects to have a prototype prepared by 2019, but the UK government appears ready to help test some of its systems before then.