New Record For Solar-Powered Autonomous Flight: 28 Hours Without Refueling

Posted by timothy on Saturday July 11, 2015 @03:31AM from the day-length-varies-by-place-and-time-though dept.

Hallie Siegel describes a new and impressive achievement for solar-powered flight: keeping a drone aloft for more than a full day. From the article: To actually pull it off has required a fair bit of innovation in flexible solar cells, high energy density batteries, miniaturized MEMS and CMOS sensors, and powerful processors ... but researchers at ETH Zurich have just recently managed to keep their unmanned UAV aloft for 28 hours without any fuel, building on their previous record by over an hour. Having more than 24 hours of endurance is important because overcast skies can inhibit recharging and poor weather or high winds can affect power consumption.

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Say impact by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-11 03:56 · Score: 0, Insightful

I have found the word "impact" is great for people who don't know the difference between affect/effect. Works great when I review resumes, too (If the job requires a good command of English, "impact" for anything but a molar or crater=fail).
*affect power consumption