NASA Drone's Sensors Battle California Wildfires

An anonymous reader writes "California is burning, but according to this article advanced sensors on NASA's Ikhana unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can detect exact temperatures (within half a degree) through the smoke, enabling the drone to spot for the firefighters battling the more than 300 wildfires. NASA's Ikhana is the same aircraft as the Predator, except it's being used here to save lives."

Comments

Same as Predator

[Mononoke]

NASA's Ikhana is the same aircraft as the Predator, except it's being used here to save lives."

The Predator's primary function is to save lives.

Re:Same as Predator

[Trogre]

I actually sat looking at your post for a full minute before I realised you weren't talking about the particular kind of Predator whose primary purpose is to hunt aliens and humans for sport. I was trying to figure out how that could be construed as saving lives.

Re:Same as Predator

[Kamokazi]

And another thank you. It drives me nuts when people use anything as an opportunity to bash anything related to the military.

Re:Same as Predator

[pete-classic]

I thought its primary function was to gather intelligence, which hopefully has the effect of saving American, allied, and non-combatant's lives. But it does that by letting us kill enemy combatants better, which seems different on its face from what this article talks about.

-Peter

Re:Same as Predator

[Jeff DeMaagd]

The Predator's primary function is to save lives.

That may be the end result in both cases, but the primary function of Predator is intelligence gathering, and it can lob missiles too.

And let's not kid ourselves. I think it was Norman Shwartzkopf that said the purpose of the military is to break things and kill people. Even if that is breaking things that would be used against others, and killing those that intend to do harm, it is still breaking & killing, and in the process, there is usually some "collateral damage" to those that had nothing to do with the conflict except to be on the receiving end of shrapnel.

Re:Same as Predator

[Mr2cents]

The Predator's primary function is to save lives.

They should upgrade the thing to carry more weapons, so that it can save even more lives.

(War logic is always twisted)

Re:Same as Predator

[pete-classic]

the simple existence of the predator drone has the effect of denying the enemy or potential enemy freedom of movement, irrespective of the ability/willingness to harm. [. . .] unless some careless politician had subscribed to a "no first use" policy.

You just made the same mistake as the careless politician. There must be at least a perceived ability/willingness to do harm. And let's face it, you give the other guy the idea that you're willing to harm him by harming his buddies first.

-Peter

Re:Same as Predator

[waldo2020]

tell it to the allied Canadian soldiers that keep getting bombed by yanks - friendly fire indeed!

Re:Same as Predator

[Nutria]

try imagining the Viet Nam war with predators roaming in the air equipped with that thermal camera.

I'm pretty sure that the tri-layer canopy would have absorbed human body heat.

Coincidence?

[Anonymous Coward]

Has anyone considered the possibility that perhaps these NASA drones are the ones starting the fires? Is it a coincidence that once this technology arrived that the number of forest fires skyrocketed? In a couple of weeks NASA will roll out a better technology and the rate of forest fire creation will plummet. NASA will be hailed as a hero and they will get the budget increases they always wanted--to build their doomsday machines!

Re:Coincidence?

[Darkness404]

Wow a +5 funny to you. But in all seriousness, why would NASA want to start fires to put out in the first place? NASA's public opinion isn't that low for most of US citizens, now if Bush was out there with matches and a fire extinguisher we might all understand....

NASA, NASA, NASA

[camperdave]

Is it just me, or has there been a lot of NASA related news lately?

Mars Lander's Robot Arm Shuts Down To Save Itself
Phoenix Mars Lander To Begin Rasping Ice Shavings
NASA Contractor Needs Urine
NASA Drone's Sensors Battle California Wildfires

Re:NASA, NASA, NASA

[GradiusCVK]

Slashdot... News for nerds, stuff that matters.
I'd say that news about almost anything NASA does fits the bill pretty nicely. Better than slashvertisements and the other junk that occasionally pops up on here, at least.

Re:not to be hatin but...

[theheadlessrabbit]

the problem is forests are supposed to burn down from time to time.

50 years of 'only you can prevent forest fires', strict anti-fire laws, and fast acting fire departments have caused forest debris to build up, resulting in these super infernos.

more frequent fires = less dangerous fires, more nutrients in the soil, young trees releasing more oxygen into the air, etc.

an automatic system would seem to work for a little while, but it would only delay the problem. eventually an ueber-inferno will come through and the system will be useless.

Re:not to be hatin but...

[TapeCutter]

"Putting out forest fires has proven to be yet another form of short term thinking that gets us into a lot more trouble in the long term. Sometimes you really do have to destroy a forest in order to save it."

That's a bit simplistic, the idea is to burn the undergrowth not destroy the forrest.

Already been done

[kermit1221]

Ya, they did this last year when Southern California was on fire. All the pretty pictures of the San Bernardino mountains (next to my house) were from a NASA UAV. It was picking out the hotspots for the planes and choppers flying out of the Hot Shots place at San Bernardino Int'l Airport down the street.

AUAV next step

[im_thatoneguy]

Now we just need a swarm of automatic choppers which can then be directed by a point and click interface at command and control.

"Suppress "this" area."

or an emergency button for crews on the ground:

"drop water on me."

It would be like the roomba of California.

If you're gonna be semantic pedants, do it right.

[xalorous]

Purpose is a goal, aim, intention.

Function is hat something does or is used for.

So, the purpose is to carry out the function without risking human lives, on the ground or in the air.

So the original statement is wrong too. It doesn't save lives so much as it allows recon, surveillance and targetting without risking lives.

Therefore, the Predator is a weapon system which provides, at a relatively low cost, "Armed reconnaissance, airborne surveillance and target acquisition" with great reduction in risk to friendly soldiers and intelligence assets.

Bottom line, the damn thing saves U.S. soldiers from bleeding. Sheesh.

Forest Service has been doing this for years

[RNLockwood]

The USDA Forest Service Research Station in California has been doing this for a few years now posting rectified images on their website for fire suppression and anyone else to view. Images are rectified and draped over maps showing temperatures in false color and can be seen with Google Earth and with Zoomify, a Flash applet. The images are converted to shape files for Forest Service use, too.

The aircraft, a Piper Navajo light twin engine aircraft, is unfortunately out of service for engine replacement.

That's good

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

That half a degree accuracy really helps when you're trying to decide whether it's a conflagration or just a fire.