Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Robots Fly Over Antarctica

Posted by samzenpus on from the the-mountains-of-madness dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have successfully run a series of flights by autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over Antarctica. These robotic planes have a 2-meter wingspan and weigh 6 kilograms. They are powered by Lithium Ion Polymer (LIPo) battery packs — similar to the ones in your cellphones or laptops. So far, these autonomous UAVs have completed about 20 flights lasting 40 minutes each. These robots can fly over 45 kilometers while taking about 100 measurements per second about the exchange of heat between the lower atmosphere and sea ice. According to one of the scientists, 'the future of atmospheric research will be robotic.'"

1 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Collecting data by QuantumG · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Conclusion: the ice is melting.

    We knew that already.. we even have a good idea of the rate at which it is melting and how fucked we are going to be as a result.

    Now that we know this, can we please do something about it? Or are we just not ready for that yet? Another 20 years of study perhaps?

    Can we at least direct some of that study towards solutions?

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.