Slashdot Mirror
Hobbyists Selling Tesla Coil Kits To Fund Drone Flight Over North Korea
An anonymous reader writes Imagine for a moment having at your fingertips the ability to send a small robotic messenger — a minion if you will — virtually anywhere in the world and back. Sure, you've seen those fun little drone toys at the mall and perhaps you have had a friend that likes to tinker around with model airplanes, but what you are about to see unfold here is genuinely an unprecedented work of good 'ol fashioned American ingenuity. Apparently a group of hackers has started a kickstarter to build and fly a small drone over North Korea and back and is selling mini tesla coils to do this. "All of the money from this project will be used to extend the distance our drone can fly, so the more backers we have, the farther it will be able to go," they say.
Nothing helps ease tension in a hotbed area run by a bunch of crazies with cannons aimed at Seoul like tiny drones. Good on ya, you bunch of smarties!
This aught to be fun to watch...
The North Korean hackers have a new target!
Interesting that "Starting a War" does not appear in that section.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
From FKP
We do understand that the legality of sending a drone on an intercontinental flight may be dubious. We will work with authorities to try to make our flight happen.
Good luck with that.
All of the money from this project will be used to extend the distance our drone can fly, so the more backers we have, the farther it will be able to go!
Ok, now I know it's a hoax/scam.
Seriously, what is this doing on Slashdot? It's not even April 1st, yet
You can buy "poke the bear with a stick" kits on Ebay, medical and political fallout insurance not included...
Why not leave anything that could start a major diplomatic incident (at best) to the hands of amateurs!
what could possibly go wrong...
bickerdyke
Why not somewhere more appropriate or interesting like europe? India? Africa? Why of all places would you send this drone somewhere it would be detected, tracked and destroyed in all likelyhood upon arrival?
Granted "drone" and "north korea" make a senasational headline for a project but outside of being a punching bag for failed american international policy North Korea doesnt seem to bring any intrinsic value to this project outside of the fact that between seth rogan, sony pictures, and our international sanctions America seems to have a morbid fascination with the place.
Good people go to bed earlier.
If Kim Jong-Un starts a war with the only world superpower and their allies over unarmed, unmanned aircraft launched by civilian hobbyists, he'll get what he deserves.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
"All of the money from this project will be used to extend the distance our drone can fly, so the more backers we have, the farther it will be able to go,"
Power be damned, they invented a drone that flies on money!
Exactly. The last one has brought the USA out of the Great Depression and into prosperity all the way into the millennium.
New Economic Perspectives
If Kim Jong-Un starts a war with the only world superpower and their allies over unarmed, unmanned aircraft launched by civilian hobbyists, he'll get what he deserves.
No doubt, but the significant worry isn't about Kim Jong-Un so much as about all the other people he'd likely take with him. The population of Seoul, for example, would probably not appreciate getting shelled and/or nuked.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
You mean they're going to send it from the US, not South Korea?
From TFA:
In other words, we want a drone to be able to fly from coastal California all the way to Pyongyang. This is a feat that would make even Kim Jong Un jealous.
Uh, yeah, that would probably make the US air force jealous if you're going to make it a round trip without refueling. I have no idea how far the big ones go but cross-pacific round trips without refueling generally involve spacecraft.
If all you wanted was some pictures of NK, it would make far more sense to launch the thing from South Korea.
If they had the skills to build an intercontinental UAV they would have realised that it will need solar power, overnight energy storage and high altitude flight capability. That's going to take it a long way over the limits for a model aircraft so they'll need FAA approval before their first test flights. Their target $10k might get them through that process but I wouldn't bet on it.
What limits for a model aircraft are those? The only "guideline" the FAA places on hobby aircraft is that they stay under 400 feet and within visual site. If you launched this thing from a beach or boat you probably could get it out of US airspace meeting those qualifications, and then of course you can do whatever the heck you want with it.
The FAA guidelines aren't even legally binding, as much as the FAA has been protesting otherwise. As far as I'm aware, in the only court case to be decided so far the court ruled against the FAA because they never followed the rulemaking process when they issued the ban on commercial use, etc.
Well his father and his grandfather are largely to blame for that. For all we know he may be trying to fix the system. ;-)
I'm no fan of these idiots but the only reason China keeps propping them up is so they have a bargaining chip with the West.
And a fairly large buffer between South Korea and them...
Actually, I think China props them up to avoid the flood of refugees that would flow north if a war did start up again. They are embarrassed with NK and are stuck with the two bit tin pot dictator they helped get into power and stuck with having to defend NK, at least some, to keep their buffer with the south. But as in all things like this, the reasons are complex and hard to accurately explain in a few sentences.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Uh, yeah, that would probably make the US air force jealous if you're going to make it a round trip without refueling.
The Global Hawk has a range of 8700 miles, and NK is only 5600 miles from CA. Being able to do this as a round-trip, no refueling, with a budget of a lot less than $10k[1], and before the end of 2015 is going to take some major amounts of magical unicorn shit, so I don't think that the USAF is going to be jealous anytime soon.
My take is that this is pretty much a scam wrapped in an appeal to magical thinking.
[1] KS project is for $10K. From that they need to build, package and ship the Tesla Coils. And I just saw that you don't actually get a Tesla Coil unless you pony up at least $55.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Beyond the obvious problems with the concept (the cost of goods sold for the coils themselves, the extreme improbability of a kerosene-powered drone built by college students being able to make intercontinental flights, the fact that there's no way in hell the FAA or the State Department would permit such a flight, etc.), there's several big red flags on this that scream "scam:"
This KS is an excellent example of a KS from which you want to stay far, far away. Most of the time, the KS community is pretty wise to these sorts of things, but I suppose the combination of "North Korea," "tesla coils," and submissions to Slashdot will lure people in. Don't be a sucker.
The Freelance Wizard
Putting aside for a moment that this KS is probably a scam, what are the ramifications of an act such as this.
In the current climate, what would he US call it if citizens of another nation started drone flights of unknown purpose over US soil. I would suggest the T word would be used and as soon as the launch point is identified all extra-judicial efforts will be made to ensure the perpetrators are removed from the gene-pool.
Would a state like "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" consider doing less if it were in their interest.
Other states have done similar to citizens of other countries, located outside of their boarders for reasons of National Security, see:-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...
AND
http://www.globalresearch.ca/t...
AND ALSO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...
Well, this is a solved problem, but for $10k? Voyager used that much just for gas! Of course, Voyager carried two people...
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
That wouldn't make it across the Pacific, simply because when the sun goes down your motor stops turning. You'd need solar panels enough to not only power it during the day, but with enough excess to charge batteries for the night, which makes the drone much heavier, which means bigger structures made with fancier materials and more energy use.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Just to put this silliness into perspective, the current distance and duration records for a model aircraft are held by The Spirit of Butts' Farm, built by legendary modeller Maynard Hill. The model took 38 hours, 52 minutes, 19 seconds to fly the 1,881.6 mi (3,028.1 km) from Cape Spear, near St. John's, Newfoundland, to Mannin Beach, near Clifden, Ireland.
This was their fifth attempt to complete the trip. The longer trip across the Pacific, against the wind one way (the proposal is a round trip!), would seem to be far outside the meager budget of the Kickstarter guys.
1. Bogus idea: They are going to build a UAV from scratch, fly it from CA to NK and back, all for $10K? They could barely afford the fuel they need for $10K! 2. Arbitrarily using the word "Tesla" -- might as well jump on the Tesla Meme Bandwagon promoted by The Oatmeal to get some popularity. 3. Going after a political hot topic, North Korea, to get some more press attention. 4. Yep, it's a bogus kick starter.
Yeah I always knew that. The charge leaks away after a couple days, but the first thing you do is find them and short them out. Then you remove them, charge them back up, and sneak up on other kids with your new disposable taser.