Emailsounds cool.
posted on Sun, 07/30/2006 - 1:30pm
Nano air vehicle
Mapleseed Nano Air Vehicle: Nano Air Vehicle Photo by Art Oglesby
Mapleseed Nano Air Vehicle
DARPA wants Lockheed to design a surveillance drone shaped like a mapleseed. The remote-controlled nano air vehicles (or NAVs, for short) would be dropped from hovercraft, whirl around a battlefield snapping pictures or delivering various payloads. Once the NAV delivers its payload, it would return to the warfighter for collection and refurbishment.
Besides controlling lift and pitch, the wing will also house telemetry, communications, navigation, imaging sensors, and battery power. The NAV will be about 1.5 inches long and have a maximum takeoff weight of about 0.35 ounces. A chemical rocket enclosed in its one-bladed wing will power a sensor payload module more than 1,100 yards. Delivered from a hover and weighing up to 0.07 ounces, the module will be interchangeable based on mission requirements.
According to James Marsh, director of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL), "The challenges are both exciting and daunting, because some of the technologies vital to our success have yet to be discovered. We know going in that we need some of the best minds in manufacturing technology and in the development and integration of highly sophisticated, software- driven control technologies and mission systems." From Lockheed press release via Yahoo Finance
Want to design a mapleseed rocket?
Check out the science and design experiments on these web sites.
Your Comments, Thoughts, Questions, Ideas
that would be a big advantage for our us troops but one problem i think is that this (spy drone) if it is expensive then it could be a problem or maby if for the wind issue that rocket would not last long enough to keep the drone steady long enough to take enough pics and bring them back to the us hq.if the drones were able to just self destruct after taking it's photos and digitally relay them to the us computers and wire that info to the generals on the field then the drone would have a better outcome i think.
posted on Sun, 07/30/2006 - 7:48pm
Might be a good idea, but if your'e convinced that the US is spying on us then we'll probably be in a bad spot. Still, the advantages this might bring our troops should be worth it.
It could be an excellent spy if they improved the rocket.
posted on Tue, 09/19/2006 - 2:49pm
Update on maple seed nano air vehicle: A cool video explaining the nano air vehicle project being developed by Lockheed Martin can be viewed at Scientific Frontline
posted on Sun, 05/04/2008 - 7:49pm
Just like their bigger UAV cousins, we will soon after military deployment see these thingees used by local police forces. Orwell is turning in his grave.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/business/worldbusiness/27iht-drone.4.1...
posted on Sat, 10/31/2009 - 4:51pm
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