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Laser Powers Lockheed Martin's Stalker Drone For 48 Hours
garymortimer writes "Lockheed Martin (LMT) and LaserMotive, Inc., recently demonstrated the capabilities of an innovative laser power system to extend the Stalker Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) flight time to more than 48 hours. This increase in flight duration represents an improvement of 2,400 percent. Stalker is a small, silent UAS used by Special Operations Forces since 2006 to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions."
a reason to have sharks with friggin laser beams on their head.
Should I start?
No on felt the need to mention what the "laser power system" is, but what I gather it's just concentrating the power into a beam to wirelessly charge the UAV without landing. I don't know what the strength/distance of the beam is though.
From the article, "At the conclusion of the flight test, held in a wind tunnel,"
So they've pointed a laser at a photocell indoors, this is so far from doing it over hostile territory as to be laughable.
I'm sure that any airborne attackers will greatly appreciate this opportunity to locate the ground station.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
earth is curved, lasers are straight, how many seconds can you actually do this in the field before you loose the tiny target ... not counting in wind, drift, clouds, rain, or some dipshit playing with his watch?
now we have to devise a way to get a laser-sourcing UAV to fly (for 48 hrs) within range of this one to relay the juice
<LMT> "Stalker is a small... it's only half the size of a predator drone!"
<guy> "Oh?... How large is a predator drone?"
<LMT> "The size of a bus."
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Otherwise it'll be pretty obvious (in any atmospheric conditions where there are particles or aerosols) as to just where the drone (and base!) is.
Of course with a pair of night vision goggles the same might be true of an infra-red laser. How about x-ray? ;)
You can power them from satellites rather than ground based - you'll escape all the dust and much of the atmospheric crap, and your power will be free from the sun. Park a satellite over the Middle East and you have LOS everywhere.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
The laser will make a nice locator for anti-aircraft fire, too. /FAIL
We don't want laser powered drones, we want friggin' laser powered sharks!
And where the fuck's my flying car?
"No birds were blinded in the making of this invasion."
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Really drones are safe! We've been using them for YEARS!
Stalker... that's a nice name for a drone.
The complete series will go something like Stalker, Creep, Pedo.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Here are some issues that are greatly simplified by testing indoors in a wind tunnel;
1. Tracking; The aircraft does not move therefore tracking is trivial.
2. Range; Sure it may work at a few feet but does it work at a few kilometers?
3. Atmospheric conditions; Atmospheric conditions can be completely controlled indoors. Does it work in heat haze, rain, snow, dust, etc. at range?
At least do a test that remotely approximates a real world situation. Everyone knows that power can be transmitted by laser which is all that this test proves .. again. It still has not overcome the many known issues with using lasers to transmit power to aircraft. I effect it proves what has already been proven many times ind is not an advance at all.
...I can attach it to some frikkin' sharks?
While I can see applications for something like this, I don't see how espionage and special forces ops are among them.
The whole point of these kinds of operations is to not let anybody know they are happening. They even talk about this drone as being extra quiet and stealthy. So, if that is the case, does it really make sense to shine a big laser at it? Maybe you could start it out quiet and then only turn the laser on after the bullets start flying, which makes more sense for special forces than espionage.
Where I could see something like this as being more useful is general surveillance of established territory. If I had a base that I had to protect it would be nice to have cameras orbiting up high showing me everything going on around me. The base isn't a secret, and in fact is a target. The bad guys already know I probably have drones. This just makes it possible for me to actually have drones all the time. If the bad guys try to shoot one down, well, I know something is up, which is their whole point.
Laser painting with the hard job done by the owners :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAdj6vpYppA
"America! Fuck Yeah!"
"What you gona do when we come for you?"
"America! Fuck Yeah!"
(Thankfully) 48 Hours in a wind tunnel under controlled circumstances is a long way from 48 hours flying in varying wind, through tree cover, around obstacles and dealing with weather conditions (humidity, rain, clouds, sunshine, heat, etc).
So that's what they need the Sharks with freaking Laser beams for...
Why dose technology increase to reduce the man kind all the time. Can these UAS used to calculate the exact number of elephants in the world.
It recharges by a bunch of military personal with laser pointers? Won't that give the location away?
Oh good, so now they can not only shine a big, bright, detectable light on the drone but it can also be traced back to the charging station on the other end of the beam. What a brilliant military invention! Since this has no practical use whatsoever on foreign battlefields, I think they just wanted to build a giant, high powered laser with a good tracking system. Now that they could turn into something useful.
Well,
for recharging the drone can leave the operation area. E.g. if it is a carrier based drone it moves 10km out of the surveilance area closer to the carrier and get recharged in flight. Saves the full round trip and the landing / launching.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Just in time for today's dilbert
http://www.dilbert.com/2012-07-12/
no.. that's not really the point, it recharges a drone whilst it's in air.
it's presumably to be used in situations where it doesn't matter that you give your position away.
it's not for a guerilla mission, but for mop up, think about keeping an eye on protest campers and fighting against guerillas who already know where your base is.
it's not to be used in a situation where it's a certain sized and enabled group vs. another. but more like elephant(usa) against a squirrel. squirrel knows where the elephant is but the elephant is going to need some help to find the squirrel to stomp on it.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
> Since it's a laser to deliver power, why can't it be mounted on a satellite?
1) We're not talking relatively low-power TV broadcast satellites where the receiving antenna gets a few microvolts, maybe millivolts from the satellite. Lasers capable of recharging a drone in flight require a lot of power, and it's bleeping expensive to continuously refuel/resupply a satelite even in low earth orbit. Just look at the costs of ISS (International Space Station).
2) Assuming that you could mount a powerful laser in low earth orbit, and refuel it as necessary, you'd have a HUGE military threat. The Russians and Chines would want to build their own. No need to power drones or whatever to attack enemies. "Blast them from orbit" instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamonds_Are_Forever_(film)
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
that can home in on a laser, this might not turn out to be such a hot idea. Oh, wait....
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
This is an experimental technology at best, it is MUCH cheaper to use solar to power for an observation craft at high altitude. NASA did the cheaper thing for once.
Using a space based solar collector laser I can see this being a viable way of keeping planes aloft until they just wear out...sounds good to me!