NASA Spends $25M On Unmanned Planes, Awards Aviation Prizes

An anonymous reader points out a NetworkWorld story about NASA's purchase of two unmanned aircraft for use in "observing remote locations of Earth not feasible or practical with piloted aircraft." The planes are Northrop Grumman Global Hawks, and NASA selected them for their extreme range and the fact that most other unmanned vehicles don't have the FAA's approval for regular use over the US. NASA also distributed prizes for its General Aviation Challenge this weekend. The goals of the challenge include improving fuel efficiency in aviation, reducing emissions, and aircraft safety. None of the teams were able to achieve the $50,000 prize for managing 30 miles per gallon, but the top team was able to complete the 400-mile course at 28.8 miles per gallon.

Comments

Units?

[Bazman]

Gallons? US or Imperial? NASA has gone metric anyway, so it should be litres. NASA know what happens when you mix your units up...

http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/

Re:Oil independence

[utnapistim]

Fuel consumption efficiency is not the answer here.

It's of course better to be efficient than not, but consuming less oil doesn't move you to independence of foreign sources; it is moving you to less dependency, but not to independence.

The answer (as I see it) is not to impose cheap oil prices (being outside the US this is what I get the feeling the US are doing.
Instead, let the price go up, and more than that, impose a task on oil consumption. That should encourage people to actively seek alternate fuel sources.

Unfortunately, such a measure would make whoever takes it, terribly unpopular with the American public and is a sure way of ending a political career.
The current direction in the US, is like seeing you have tooth aches and continuously taking pain-killers and hoping the problem will auto-magically disappear (without going to the dentist). I did that for half a year and the result is not pretty (in the end it affected my health, did more damage and cost me more than simply addressing the actual problem in the first place).