Comments on: First Test Flight

By: Car Man

Car Man — Fri, 14 May 2010 04:39:47 +0000

Chris Naftel is a genius and I’m glad to see this administration finally pumping money into NASA and science. It’s been far too long we need to move ahead and with people like Chris and money we can accomplish allot

By: Al Jarvi

Al Jarvi — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:46:52 +0000

NASA is not the only agency or organization using UAV platforms for atmospheric/oceanographic research. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] is starting to look at using or is using UAV platforms.

http://uas.noaa.gov/

The ongoing VORTEX2 experiment in the plains states is another example.

http://www.vortex2.org/home/

The UAV, as noted before, can cover large geographic areas at different altitudes, with long duration while still carrying a large package of scientific instrumentation.

FWIW I am a former Senior Electronics Technician (now retired) with the NOAA Office of Aircraft Operations and flew as an aircrew member on their WP-3D research aircraft. In our case we were limited to flight durations of about 10 hours and what altitudes were safe particularly during hurricane research and reconnaissance flights.

Personally I applaud this use of new technology. Great job folks. I just wish I was there…

By: Seychelles

Seychelles — Sat, 01 May 2010 19:26:00 +0000

Applause well merited It was applause for the engineers, managers, and crew of the Global Hawk. Chris Naftel and his Dryden team have made the Global Hawk a reality for science. This was indeed an historic occasion. Congrats to Global Hawk team and good luck…

By: Daniel Toschläger

Daniel Toschläger — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:01:46 +0000

I like this idea, I mean to reuse military technologies for science. It’s not new of course. A drone can be more flexible then a balloon – you can steer it.

I don’t know why the balloon in Australia was smashing the car, but a drone you should be able to be landed/run a landing program. By the way, I don’t think that this accident was related to the decision to use drones.

I think NASA won’t throw away any balloon. For it’s specific duty they are great. But, both are tools! If you want to put a nail in the wall, you will not use a drill for it. If you want to screw something together — don’t use a hammer for the job!

By: simon

simon — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:37:54 +0000

I guess i’m missing why this is a huge deal. they strapped a weather station to ten-year-old predator technology. isn’t this simply a glorified weather balloon? is this all that Nasa is left with after the budget cuts and redefinition of its mission? I’m also not that thrilled at the idea of having “fleets of these aircraft” in our skies in the future, seems like a lot of wasted fuel for what we could get from a helium platform.

By: Kevin Rohrer

Kevin Rohrer — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:01:14 +0000

What an incredible accomplishment. I had the opportunity to visit with some of the project leads yesterday (thanks Paul, Dave and Chris) while Global Hawk was in flight and was very impressed how the entire team was working together. What a fantastic start to this mission!

By: John Umana

John Umana — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:53:47 +0000

Congrats to Global Hawk team, as the robo-plane is in the air over the Pacific for the first time today. Good luck!