Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 22 2018, @07:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the high-flyer dept.

NBC News:

A solar-powered drone designed to take on the multimillion-dollar market for satellites in space has set a record by staying in flight at high altitude for nearly 26 days. Airbus has plenty of plans for its so-called pseudo-satellite, including possible military reconnaissance and monitoring the spread of wildfires, among other activities.

The European aerospace consortium Airbus announced that the latest model of its Zephyr drone had landed near Yuma, Arizona, late last week, after staying on the wing continuously for 25 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes, and breaking a world record for long-endurance flight.

The drone was driven by electric power from solar panels on its wings during daylight, when it flew at altitudes above 70,000 feet (21,300 meters), Airbus spokesman Alain Dupiech told Live Science.

At night, the drone used stored battery power, dropping to around 50,000 feet (15,240 meters) by morning — well above any clouds and bad weather, and higher than regular air traffic, except military spy planes , Dupiech said.

Previously, the endurance record was held by an older prototype of the Zephyr drone, which stayed airborne 14 days in 2014.

Airbus hopes the latest Zephyr drone will take on some of the commercial market for satellite launches into Earth orbit, by carrying out tasks like high-altitude photography and environmental monitoring for weeks or months at a time.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday August 22 2018, @03:52PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday August 22 2018, @03:52PM (#724706) Journal

    That "Human Computer" guy, you refer to. Was probably a Woman. https://www.history.com/news/human-computers-women-at-nasa [history.com]

    Also, specifically relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_computer [wikipedia.org]
    "Wartime computing and the invention of electronic computing

    Human computers played integral roles in the World War II war effort in the United States, and because of the depletion of the male labor force due to the draft, many computers during World War II were women, frequently with degrees in mathematics. In the Manhattan Project, human computers, working with a variety of mechanical aids, assisted numerical studies of the complex formulas related to nuclear fission.[9] Because the six people responsible for setting up problems on the ENIAC (the premiere general-purpose electronic digital computer built at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II) were drafted from a corps of human computers, the world's first professional computer programmers were women including Kay McNulty, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, Betty Jean Jennings, and Fran Bilas.[10]

    Following World War II, the NACA used human computers in flight research to transcribe raw data from celluloid film and oscillograph paper and then, using slide rules and electric calculators, reduced the data to standard engineering units. Margot Lee Shetterly's biographical book, Hidden Figures, documents the contributions of African American women who served as human computers at NASA.[11] One such computer was Dorothy Vaughan who began her work in 1943 with the Langley Research Center as a special hire to aid the WWII effort.[12] "

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday August 23 2018, @07:20PM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday August 23 2018, @07:20PM (#725359) Homepage Journal

    However I don't have any details other than that from time to time an agent would knock one someone's door then ask their parents if their smart high school child could serve their country's requirement for math whizzes.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]