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Fighting Fire From the Sky

Posted by michael on from the also-known-as-rain dept.

exceed writes: "Yahoo! News has an article on an unmanned robotic airplane that is able to circle around wild fires for up to 24 hours, sending data and images back down to earth via satellite. The Altus II, created by NASA, employs cutting edge technology usually seen in military aircraft, giving fire officials a real-time view of fires that can burn over hundreds of thousands of acres. The plane could map dozens of fires and topographical features in a day, never endangering a pilot."

6 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Satellite by damiam · · Score: 2, Insightful
    sending data and images down by satellite

    Why not just use an image satellite in the first place? The picture quality is good enough.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  2. It's about time... by Pii · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Military, or military-like, technology developed with public funding ought to be made available more quickly.

    Even if they have to "dumb it down" a bit, so that foreign powers can't use it against us, Drone aircraft have a number of applications, public and private.

    I'm glad to see this, and I'll welcome more of it.

    --
    For those that would die defending it, Freedom
    has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
  3. Stopping fires leads to more destructive fires by The+Panther! · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is probably a natural balance with the amount of combustible material in an area and the amount of moisture in that area. Once a thicket gets too dry, it burns for one reason or another. I find it interesting that the more we fight small to medium sized forest fires, the larger and more destructive the eventual large one is. It's all a balance, and we're helping destroy it one squirt of water at a time. The more we fight nature, the harder it fights back.

    Cool technology, though.

    --
    Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
    1. Re:Stopping fires leads to more destructive fires by exceed · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This craft isn't even used to actually _fight_ the fire, it is only used to map out the area and send other data down to the fire fighters themselves. And usually, we let forest fires burn until they threaten an area that has some sort of population, then we take certain measures to protect that area.

      --

      void women (int money, time_t time);
    2. Re:Stopping fires leads to more destructive fires by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
      That's why they do controlled burns these days.

      But when a large fire breaks out and threatens to destroy a nearby town, are you suggesting that we all just shrug and say "it's nature's way" instead of trying to stop it?

  4. why dont they by 1Oman · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why dont they program it to fly around scoop up water and drop it on the fire. Unlike human pilots they don't need to see at night.


    Get about 10 of them flying 24 hours a day, guided by sattelite and we would need a lot less fire fighters.


    Hey you could even have a robotic refueling plane and the fire fighting drones would never have to land.