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Aurora Odysseus
The Odysseus is a solar, High-Altitude Long Endurance drone developed by Aurora Flight Sciences. Development Aurora Flight Sciences announced the Odysseus in November 2018. In spring 2019, Aurora planned to fly a High-Altitude Long Endurance drone powered by solar cells and batteries, Odysseus, to study the Earth atmosphere or as a military pseudo-satellite for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The 74.1m (243ft) wide carbon fibre aircraft should weigh less than a Smart Car, can carry a 25kg (55lb) payload with 250W provided during several months of endurance. It would compete with the Airbus Zephyr ordered by the UK Ministry of Defence and visited by the U.S. Army Futures Command, the BAE Systems- Prismatic Ltd UAV, and the AeroVironment-SoftBank telecommunications UAV. The bendable wing has fiberglass upper skin panels and plastic film undersides, three tails and six propellers, with roll controlled by the outboard tails. It used available, low-risk, lithium p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-Altitude Long Endurance
Atmospheric satellite (United States usage, abbreviated atmosat) or pseudo-satellite (British usage) is a marketing term for an aircraft that operates in the atmosphere at high altitudes for extended periods of time, in order to provide services conventionally provided by an artificial satellite orbiting in space. Atmospheric satellites remain aloft through atmospheric lift, either aerostatic/buoyancy (e.g., balloons) or aerodynamic (e.g., airplanes). By contrast, conventional satellites in Earth orbit operate in the vacuum of space and remain in flight through centrifugal force derived from their orbital speed. To date, all atmosats have been unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Design principles An atmosat remains aloft through atmospheric lift, in contrast to a satellite in Earth orbit which moves freely at high speed in the vacuum of space, and orbits due to its centrifugal force matching the force of gravity. Satellites are expensive to build and launch, and any changes t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth. The plastic matrix may be a thermoset polymer matrix—most often based on thermosetting polymers such as epoxy, polyester resin, or vinyl ester resin—or a thermoplastic. Cheaper and more flexible than carbon fiber, it is stronger than many metals by weight, non- magnetic, non-conductive, transparent to electromagnetic radiation, can be molded into complex shapes, and is chemically inert under many circumstances. Applications include aircraft, boats, automobiles, bath tubs and enclosures, swimming pools, hot tubs, septic tanks, water tanks, roofing, pipes, cladding, orthopedic casts, surfboards, and external door skins. Other common names for fiberglass are glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), glass-fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) or GF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Of The United States
An uncrewed vehicle or unmanned vehicle is a vehicle without a person on board. Uncrewed vehicles can either be under telerobotic control—remote controlled or remote guided vehicles—or they can be autonomously controlled—autonomous vehicles—which are capable of sensing their environment and navigating on their own. Types There are different types of uncrewed vehicles: * Remote control vehicle (RC), such as radio-controlled cars or radio-controlled aircraft * Unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), such as the autonomous cars, or unmanned combat vehicles (UCGV) * Unmanned ground and aerial vehicle (UGAV), unmanned vehicle with hybrid locomotion methods * Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned aircraft commonly known as "drone" ** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) **Medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE) ** Miniature UAV (SUAV) ** Delivery drone ** Micro air vehicle (MAV) ** Target drone * Autonomous spaceport drone ship * Uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Facebook Aquila
The Facebook Aquila is an experimental solar-powered drone developed by Facebook for use as an atmospheric satellite, intended to act as relay stations for providing internet access to remote areas. It first flew on 28 June 2016 with a second aircraft successfully flying in 2017. Internal development of the Aquila aircraft was stopped in June 2018. Development Aquila was developed by Facebook's Connectivity Lab. The prototype airframe design and construction was led by Ascenta, a Somerset, England-based company acquired by Facebook in 2014. Several scale models of the Aquila were built and flown to prove the concept prior to the full scale prototype being built. Following construction at Ascenta's factory in Bridgwater, England, the Aquila prototype was disassembled and shipped to Arizona, where it was first flown on 28 June 2016. The 96-minute flight was considered successful. However, during landing, the aircraft touched down short of the intended landing zone and was damage ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boeing SolarEagle
The Boeing SolarEagle (Vulture II) was a proposed High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle solar-electric spy plane developed by Boeing Phantom Works.Haddox, Chris"SolarEagle (Vulture II) Backgrounder" ''Boeing Phantom Works'', September 2010. Retrieved: 18 October 2010. The proposed aircraft had a wingspan of 393.7 feet (120 meters), and was intended to remain airborne for up to five years at a time without needing to land. It had 20 motors of the same type as the Qinetiq Zephyr designed by Newcastle University. Boeing was awarded an $89 million contract by DARPA's Vulture program, with Boeing covering the remainder. It was slated to make its first flight in 2014, but in 2012 the SolarEagle project was cancelled and DARPA's Vulture program was refocused on advancing photovoltaic and energy storage Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production. A de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aurora Flight Sciences Orion
The Orion is a Medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Aurora Flight Sciences. Background Work on the Orion began in 2006, when the U.S. Army funded it as a hydrogen-fuelled “high-altitude, long-loiter” (HALL) UAV. Originally, it was conceived as a single-engine, hydrogen-fueled, high-altitude unmanned aircraft intended to carry a payload to having a gross weight; similar aircraft included the AeroVironment Global Observer and Boeing Phantom Eye. Aurora was selected by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in 2007 for the Ultra Long Endurance study contract to look at fixed-wing alternatives to the Blue Devil 2 and Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) surveillance airships then being explored (both ultimately cancelled) and push beyond the endurance limits of the MQ-1 Predator and RQ-4 Global Hawk; they submitted an unsolicited proposal to the AFRL for the Orion, powered by conventional engines, in 2008. The company won a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AeroVironment Global Observer
The AeroVironment Global Observer is a concept for a high-altitude, long endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, designed by AeroVironment (AV) to operate as a stratospheric geosynchronous satellite system with regional coverage. Two Global Observer aircraft, each flying for up to a week at an altitude of , could alternate coverage over any area on the Earth, providing a platform for communications relays, remote sensing, or long-term surveillance. In addition to flying above weather and above other conventional aircraft, operation at this altitude permits communications and sensor payloads on the aircraft to service an area on the surface of the earth up to in diameter, equivalent to more than of coverage. Global Observer may offer greater flexibility than a satellite and longer duration than conventional manned and unmanned aircraft. Development JCTD program The Global Observer Joint Capabilities Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program had the goal of helping solve the capability ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
US Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It was officially named the North Central Region by the Census Bureau until 1984. It is between the Northeastern United States and the Western United States, with Canada to the north and the Southern United States to the south. The Census Bureau's definition consists of 12 states in the north central United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The region generally lies on the broad Interior Plain between the states occupying the Appalachian Mountain range and the states occupying the Rocky Mountain range. Major rivers in the region include, from east to west, the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River, and the Missouri River. The 2020 United St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ozone Depletion
Ozone depletion consists of two related events observed since the late 1970s: a steady lowering of about four percent in the total amount of ozone in Earth's atmosphere, and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone (the ozone layer) around Earth's polar regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. There are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events in addition to these stratospheric events. The main causes of ozone depletion and the ozone hole are manufactured chemicals, especially manufactured halocarbon refrigerants, solvents, propellants, and foam-blowing agents (chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), HCFCs, halons), referred to as ozone-depleting substances (ODS). These compounds are transported into the stratosphere by turbulent mixing after being emitted from the surface, mixing much faster than the molecules can settle. Once in the stratosphere, they release atoms from the halogen group through photodissociation, which ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated territories of the United States, unincorporated territory of the United States. It is located in the northeast Caribbean Sea, approximately southeast of Miami, Florida, between the Dominican Republic and the United States Virgin Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, and includes the eponymous main island and several smaller islands, such as Isla de Mona, Mona, Culebra, Puerto Rico, Culebra, and Vieques, Puerto Rico, Vieques. It has roughly 3.2 million residents, and its Capital city, capital and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, most populous city is San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan. Spanish language, Spanish and English language, English are the official languages of the executive branch of government, though Spanish predominates. Puerto Rico ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thin-film Solar Cell
A thin-film solar cell is a second generation solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers, or thin film (TF) of photovoltaic material on a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon (a-Si, TF-Si). Film thickness varies from a few nanometers ( nm) to tens of micrometers ( µm), much thinner than thin-film's rival technology, the conventional, first-generation crystalline silicon solar cell (c-Si), that uses wafers of up to 200 µm thick. This allows thin film cells to be flexible, and lower in weight. It is used in building-integrated photovoltaics and as semi-transparent, photovoltaic glazing material that can be laminated onto windows. Other commercial applications use rigid thin film solar panels (interleaved between two panes of glass) in some of the world's largest photovol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gallium Arsenide
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a Zincblende (crystal structure), zinc blende crystal structure. Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated circuits, infrared light-emitting diodes, laser diodes, solar cells and optical windows. GaAs is often used as a substrate material for the epitaxial growth of other III-V semiconductors, including indium gallium arsenide, aluminum gallium arsenide and others. Preparation and chemistry In the compound, gallium has a +3 oxidation state. Gallium arsenide single crystals can be prepared by three industrial processes: * The vertical gradient freeze (VGF) process. * Crystal growth using a horizontal zone furnace in the Bridgman-Stockbarger technique, in which gallium and arsenic vapors react, and free molecules deposit on a seed crystal at the cooler end of the furnace. * Liquid encapsulated Czochralski process, Czoch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
