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: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.

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.

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.