A pilotless aircraft has late taken to the sky above Antarctica in a psychometric test flight of stairs that could revolutionize the way scientific data point is gathered on the world ’s ice - covered continent .
Under the command of the British Antarctic Survey ’s ( BAS ) Rothera Research Station , the Windracers ULTRA UAV is a fully self-reliant plane with a 10 - meter ( 32 - foot ) wingspan , able of carry 100 kilograms of cargo and recruitment for up to 1,000 kilometers ( 621 miles ) .
Thanks to its high - technical school autopilot arrangement , it can take off , fell , and land safely with little input from a human hustler .
It ’s been specially plan by Windracers , an autonomous bourdon operator , to deal with the tough Antarctica environment . For instance , if one of its two engine fails , the plane will still be able to fly and make it back to base . Likewise , it ’s been designed to still function even if certain components are damaged or break .
The autonomous plane arrived inAntarcticaearlier this month and completed its initial run flights this week , log some 720 kilometers ( 447 mile ) of locomotion .
“ So far so upright , everything has very much go to architectural plan and the Windracers ULTRA has shown that it can robustly gather a range of science information . Our initial flights have been up to 1.5 60 minutes long with even longer missionary work contrive in the next couple of calendar week , ” Carl Robinson , head of Airborne Survey Technology & UAVs at BAS , said in astatement .
“ It ’s very former days , but initial data is already showing the platform can collect gamey - quality environmental entropy utilitarian to a grasp science disciplines , ” added Tom Jordan , the lead scientist on the project .
The plane will preserve its mental testing flight of stairs this time of year as part ofa broad experimental projectthat ’s front to see how independent monotone could be used to gather environmental data in Antarctica .
During this trial phase angle , the carpenter’s plane is sic to carry out an raiment of task , such as appraise ice mainsheet structures using airborne microwave radar and investigatingtectonic structures under Antartica ’s iceusing magnetised and gravity sensors .
It will also use camera to document krill , the foundation of the marine food chain , in environmentally sensitive areas . last , its atmospheric turbulence probe will study the complex process of the continent ’s oceans and air .
“ We firmly believe that mellow endurance , high payload self-directed drones have a worthful function to play in the time to come of environmental inquiry . So it has been hugely rewarding to see the team testing the ULTRA lagger in Antarctica and , while it is early day , we ’re very bucked up by its achievements so far and the feedback we ’ve been receiving from the scientists and engineers on the ground , ” put forward Stephen Wright , Founder and Chairman of Windracers .
Beyond Antarctica , independent planer are achieving all kinds of wild effort . In August 2022 , the solar - power Airbus Zephyr Sremained airbornefor 64 days , 18 60 minutes , and 26 second . While that broke the book for the long - ever uncrewed flight , it did n’t outsmart the book set in 1958 , which visualize two gentleman fly for 64 Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , 22 hour , and 19 minutes .
Human pilots have that record book for now , but we would n’t enumerate on them take it for much longer .
