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Robotic Scout To Survey Arctic Ice
Roland Piquepaille writes "The Meridian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a single-engine research aircraft with fixed landing gear designed by engineers at the University of Kansas. According to Technology Review, it will be used to see what happens beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. Two units are currently being built for a cost of about 3 million US dollars. The Meridian will fly for up to 13 hours over a distance of 1,750 kilometers. The first flight over Greenland is forecast for next summer, and a second flight will take place over the Antarctic later in 2008."
I for one welcome our new, star-headed overlords.
Seriously, watch out for the Plateau of Leng guys.
Isn't all that fuel burning in the aircraft going to heat up the arctic, and exacerbate precisely the problem it's trying to survey???
get tagging, this is your daily dose of roland. if you are unlucky, there might be another roland story in a couple hours.
Sounds like the start of a Dan Brown novel - 'cept this isn't a satellite. :)
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Technology Review - Published by MIT
Thursday, September 13, 2007
A Robotic Polar Aircraft
To gain a better understanding of ice-sheet disintegration, Kansas researchers are building an unmanned plane with cutting-edge radar for better mapping.
By David Talbot
Seeing beneath the vast Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets--and, in particular, seeing whether any water sits between ice and ground--is critical to understanding how fast ice might slide into the sea in the future. But many areas are still uncharted territory. Now, engineers at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, are in the final stages of constructing, from scratch, an unmanned aircraft that will carry ground-penetrating radar and other sensors.
The project should greatly accelerate the pace of mapping without risking the lives of human pilots who now fly limited missions across parts of the ice sheets. "We can cut costs for large-scale mapping projects, increase the range, and reduce dangers," says Rick Hale, an associate professor of aerospace engineering and leader of the effort.
The plane will fly in conditions that would be too risky for humans, and it will fly lower than would be safe for human pilots, enabling sensors to bring back sharper pictures. The aircraft's key instrument, a 125-pound radar unit, will fire signals through kilometers of ice at several frequencies. Software will then analyze the timing of returning signals to create a clear picture of subsurface ice layers, water pockets, and the contours of the underlying bedrock or soil.
To be sure, there's plenty of unmanned aircraft already out there, such as the Predator, made by General Atomics. But while a Predator might cost around $30 million, Hale's team is working with a National Science Foundation budget of around $2 million. And not just any old plane will do: this aircraft needs to work in bitterly cold and extremely remote polar locations, function far from communications centers, and carry specific kinds of gear.
Hale's team is giving the aircraft three means of communication. The first will allow humans to remotely control takeoff and landing. The second will allow radio-frequency communications when the aircraft is near a base camp. The third means enables satellite communications when the aircraft might be as far as 600 kilometers away from the nearest camp. The plane's wings--which have a span of about 26 feet--are being designed to have de-icing capability, and heaters will prevent the electronics from failing in the extreme cold.
The aircraft, called Meridian, is part of a larger effort at the University of Kansas's Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets. Together with groups at other institutions, the Kansas team is pushing technology advancements to get a better fix on ice melt rates, ice thicknesses, and the accelerating rate at which glaciers are moving toward the ocean, which could accelerate the rate of sea-level rise.
The aircraft will leverage a powerful radar technology honed at the university. The radar, developed jointly with other institutions, is unique in its ability to provide a detailed picture of ice layers and, in particular, the boundary between ice and ground, which is helpful in efforts to understand how fast ice sheets might slide into the ocean. "Basically, our radar can see deeper, and with better resolution, than any of the other competitors out there at the moment," says Claude Laird, a research scientist at the University of Kansas who used the system on an expedition in Greenland this summer. The radar was used on an overland expedition and to help choose the site for an ice-core drilling expedition next year.
If all goes well, Meridian will make its maiden flight on Greenland next summer, followed by a tour of duty later in the year, during the Antarctic summer, says Hale.
Copyright Technology Review 2007.
You can't take the sky from me...
Look no further than Wikipedia for that answer. But who am I kidding? This is a Roland post.
The game.
The fuselage plugs arrived here a few weeks ago, and they look great. I believe they were made by Scaled Composites. Dr. Hale has done a fantastic job leading the aerospace side of this project. This aircraft design and development is being done by KU. Design verification is even done with software from Lawrence based DARcorporation, a spinoff of the University of Kansas with strong ties to their Aerospace Engineering department. And the first two aircraft will be manufactured at KU. Not to neglect anyone, the EECS department's team has spent many years working on the radar (I knew guys six years ago working on ground penetrating radar here) and its prospects are looking good. This is definitely a project that KU and Lawrence should be proud of.
A lot of time and effort from bright students and researchers has gone into the CReSIS project, its good to see that it has been noticed.
If the meridian can only fly for 13 hours at a time, what is the point of using it rather than a manned aircraft? Especially at such a pricetag.
The progress of science
Now demands
We go up to
The Northern Lands,
To see if we
Are really at fault
For the global
Warming assault.
Or maybe it is
To determine
Who owns that place,
Us or the Germen?
Mayhap it is
To date our Earth.
They say it's old,
That gives me mirth!
I do not know
Why we survey.
Is it really worth,
The price we pay?
http://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/1319228
observing:
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Oct-2003/0064.html
Icesat is looking at this ice. This UAV is looking under the ice. I wonder if these folks should be working together?
Scientist: You found something? Engineer: Yes, my lord. Scientist: (studying the image on the console screen) That's it. The Rebels are there. Engineer: My lord, there are so many uncharted settlements. It could be smugglers, it could be... Scientist: That is the system. And I'm sure Skywalker is with them. Set your course for the Hoth system. General Veers, prepare your men.
You don't RTFA! Don't even RTF summary - only newbies do that...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
So when do they arm this thing with Hellfire missiles?
Two units are currently being built for a cost of about 3 U.S. million dollars.
Sergey needs to offer more than $20 million for the moon-based Roomba he wants if it costs 1.5 million to get one that dusts the Arctic ice cap.
Please forgive my ignorance (and the somewhat off-topic nature of this post), but why is it that everyone hates Roland so much? It may be totally legitimate, but I guess I haven't read enough of his posts to see why he is so odious. Does he only post to get traffic for his site? Is he an arrogant asshat? Why the "rolandsucks" and "boycottroland" tags? I just remember that last time I was a Roland post, the tagging also had the anti-roland phrases. Anyone care to enlighten me (in a somewhat objective manner?) Thank you.
"has been forecast." There is no such word as "forecasted". I'm not terribly surprised at Troland's spelling ability, though.
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Canadian troops in Afghanistan just purchased several Stinger missiles from the Taliban.
(Hey, it was either that or have their heads chopped off, like those Koreans)
These missiles are now back in Canada's North, and ready to shoot down any US robotic intruder.
And this goes for you pesky Danes too!!
DO YOU GOVERN YOURSELVES ACCORDINGLY.
I remain, your most obedient servant,
X'16435934
- Ecsad Essemal
The Hexadecimal TV-REMOTE!
So they're going to skip the first step? The way I understand it is, first you send in the MALP, then if the terrain is too difficult to traverse, or if you want to do further reconnnaisance, you send in the UAV. Then, finally, you can send in SG-1 when it's confirmed that the coast is clear.
GLORX 3:16
What's a "U.S. million"?
...like Microsoft tends to?
Has the U.S. done it's usual thing of copying everyone else and then changing it slightly?
Max.
There is no such word as "forecasted".
Many dictionaries list it as an alternative past tense. The english language is much more flexible than you seem to think.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Is that more or less than a metric million?
"Prescription and description are often seen as opposites, in the sense that one declares how language should be while the other declares how language is. But they can also be complementary, and usually exist in dynamic tension. Most commentators on language show elements of both prescription and description in their thinking, and popular debate on language issues frequently revolves around the question of how to balance these." (Italics mine)
So, which type of dictionary one employs puts such arguments in the let's-agree-to-disagree category, imho.
Remote-controlled vehicles or telops are not robots. Robots are completely autonomous.