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Solar-powered Aircraft
Solar-powered aircraft are electric aircraft that can be an airplane, blimp, or airship and use either a battery or hydrogen to store the energy produced by the solar cells and use that energy at night when the sun isn't shining. Usage Solar-powered aircraft do not require fuel, so they don't require oxygen, and they are able to operate at altitudes over to for months at a time. Conventional passenger or cargo aircraft usages aren't practical yet with modern technology, but high-altitude platform stations and long-endurance missions over a fixed location with unmanned aircraft or airships are feasible. Thus solar-powered aircraft could be used in telecommunications, video/imagery, flight control by transporting airport surveillance radars, in precipitation detection by transporting weather radars, geopositioning Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and other pseudo satellite applications that transpond the data with ground stations. List of solar airplanes This list is non ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pathfinder Plus Solar Aircraft Over Hawaii
Pathfinder, Path Finder or Pathfinders may refer to: Aerospace * ''Mars Pathfinder'', a NASA Mars Lander * NASA Pathfinder, a high-altitude, solar-powered uncrewed aircraft * Space Shuttle ''Pathfinder'', a Space Shuttle test simulator Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Pathfinder, a ''G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero'' character * Path Finder (''Transformers''), an animated television series character * Pathfinder, a character in the battle royale game ''Apex Legends'' * The Pathfinder, a call sign for the alien character John Adams in the 2011 video game '' Conduit 2'' Film and television * ''The Pathfinder'' (1952 film), based on the book by James Fenimore Cooper * ''Pathfinder'' (1987 film), a Norwegian Oscar-nominated film * ''The Pathfinder'' (1996 film), a TV movie based on the book by James Fenimore Cooper * ''Pathfinder'' (2007 film), an action film based on the 1987 film * ''Pathfinders'' (TV series), a 1972-1973 British television series * "Pathfinder" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airport Surveillance Radar
An airport surveillance radar (ASR) is a radar system used at airports to detect and display the presence and position of aircraft in the ''terminal area'', the airspace around airports. It is the main air traffic control system for the airspace around airports. At large airports it typically controls traffic within a radius of 60 miles (96 km) of the airport below an elevation of 25,000 feet. The sophisticated systems at large airports consist of two different radar systems, the ''primary'' and ''secondary'' surveillance radar. The primary radar typically consists of a large rotating parabolic antenna dish that sweeps a vertical fan-shaped beam of microwaves around the airspace surrounding the airport. It detects the position and range of aircraft by microwaves reflected back to the antenna from the aircraft's surface. The secondary surveillance radar consists of a second rotating antenna, often mounted on the primary antenna, which interrogates the transponders of air ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Facebook Aquila
The Facebook Aquila was 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. The Aquila 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AeroVironment Helios Prototype
The Helios Prototype was the fourth and final aircraft developed as part of an evolutionary series of Solar energy, solar- and fuel cell, fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's NASA ERAST Program, Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. They were built to develop the technologies that would allow long-term, high-altitude aircraft to serve as atmospheric satellites, to perform atmospheric research tasks as well as serve as communications platforms. It was developed from the NASA Pathfinder and NASA Centurion aircraft. Helios Prototype The NASA Centurion was modified into the Helios Prototype configuration by adding a sixth wing section and a fifth landing gear and systems pod, becoming the fourth configuration in the series of solar-powered flying wing demonstrator aircraft developed by AeroVironment under the ERAST project. The larger wing on the Helios Prototype acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA Centurion
The NASA Centurion was the third aircraft developed as part of an evolutionary series of solar- and fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles. AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. They were built to develop the technologies that would allow long-term, high-altitude aircraft to serve as atmospheric satellites, to perform atmospheric research tasks as well as serve as communications platforms. It was developed from the NASA Pathfinder Plus aircraft and was developed into the NASA Helios. Centurion Centurion, originally built for the altitude on solar power milestone specified by the ERAST project, was the third generation aircraft in the NASA Pathfinder series of electrical-powered flying wing unmanned aircraft. The ERAST program managers had determined that an aircraft based on the Pathfinder/Pathfinder Plus concept would be the lowest risk approach of achieving the altitude goa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NASA Pathfinder
The NASA Pathfinder and NASA Pathfinder Plus were the first two aircraft developed as part of an evolutionary series of Solar energy, solar- and fuel cell, fuel-cell-system-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). AeroVironment, AeroVironment, Inc. developed the vehicles under NASA's NASA ERAST Program, Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program. They were built to develop the technologies that would allow long-term, high-altitude aircraft to serve as atmospheric satellites, to perform atmospheric research tasks as well as serve as communications platforms. They were developed further into the NASA Centurion and NASA Helios aircraft. Pathfinder AeroVironment initiated its development of full-scale solar-powered aircraft with the Gossamer Penguin and Solar Challenger vehicles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, following the pioneering work of AstroFlight, Robert Boucher, who built the first solar-powered flying models in 1974. As part of the ERAST progra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MacCready Gossamer Penguin
The ''Gossamer Penguin'' was a solar-powered experimental aircraft created by Paul MacCready's AeroVironment. MacCready had built the ''Gossamer Condor'' in 1977 which won the Kremer prize for the first human-powered flight, and the '' Gossamer Albatross,'' a similar but larger aircraft. The ''Gossamer Penguin'' was developed from the ''Albatross'' and used that ultralight design to demonstrate solar flight at testing ground at Minter Field, outside of Shafter, California."Plane flies on sun power", by Terrance W. McGarry, United Press International report in the ''Spokane (WA) Chronicle'', June 5, 1980, p12 The ''Gossamer Penguin'' was the third solar-powered aircraft to fly, and the second crewed solar-powered aircraft. The ''Penguin'' was a three-quarter scale version of the '' Gossamer Albatross II''; it had a wingspan and a weight, without pilot, of . The propeller was driven by an AstroFlight Astro-40 electric motor, powered by a 541 watt solar panel, consisting of 3920 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauro Solar Riser
The Mauro Solar Riser is an American biplane ultralight electric aircraft that was the first crewed aircraft to fly on solar power. It was also only the second solar-powered aircraft to fly, after the uncrewed AstroFlight Sunrise, which had first flown years earlier. Design and development The president of Ultralight Flying Machines, Larry Mauro, created the Solar Riser by converting a stock UFM Easy Riser hang glider to solar power. Normally foot-launched, the Solar Riser had wheeled landing gear added. Power is supplied by a Bosch electric starter motor of connected to a 30-volt DC Nickel-cadmium battery pack taken from a Hughes 500 helicopter, powering a propeller through a reduction drive made from a timing belt and two pulleys. The battery was charged by a series of photovoltaic solar panels mounted in the top wing that provided 350 watts of power. The solar cells were not sufficient to provide all power in flight, so all flights were made by recharging the batter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AstroFlight Sunrise
The AstroFlight Sunrise was an uncrewed experimental electric aircraft technology demonstrator and the first aircraft to fly on solar power. First conceived in November 1970, the Sunrise first flew on 4 November 1974 from Bicycle Lake, a dry lakebed on the Fort Irwin Military Reservation, California, United States. The first prototype was destroyed on its 28th flight by turbulence. The improved Sunrise II flew the following year. Development While working as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft, Roland Boucher began design work on an electric-powered aircraft concept in November 1970, calculating that the contemporary nickel-cadmium batteries available would be sufficient to sustain flight using a radio-control model glider. Early experimental projects proved the concept sound and in 1973 Boucher turned his attention to the creation of a high-altitude solar-powered aircraft that would have unlimited endurance. Boucher explained the project to his superiors at Hughes Aircraft in 197 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ground Station
A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves from astronomical radio sources. Ground stations may be located either on the surface of the Earth, or in its atmosphere. Earth stations communicate with spacecraft by transmitting and receiving radio waves in the super high frequency (SHF) or extremely high frequency (EHF) bands (e.g. microwaves). When a ground station successfully transmits radio waves to a spacecraft (or vice versa), it establishes a telecommunications link. A principal telecommunications device of the ground station is the parabolic antenna. Ground stations may have either a fixed or itinerant position. Article 1 ยง III of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio Regulations describes various types of stationary and mobile ground stations, and their inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transponder (satellite Communications)
A communications satellite's transponder is the series of interconnected units that form a communications channel between the receiving and the transmitting antennas. It is mainly used in satellite communication to transfer the received signals. A transponder is typically composed of: * an input band-limiting device (an input band-pass filter), * an input low-noise amplifier (LNA), designed to amplify the signals received from the Earth station (normally very weak, because of the large distances involved), * a frequency translator (normally composed of an oscillator and a frequency mixer) used to convert the frequency of the received signal to the frequency required for the transmitted signal, * an output band-pass filter, * a power amplifier (this can be a traveling-wave tube or a solid-state amplifier). Most communication satellites are radio relay stations in orbit and carry dozens of transponders, each with a Bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth of tens of megahertz. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scientific research, and Earth observation. Additional military uses are reconnaissance, early warning, signals intelligence and, potentially, weapon delivery. Other satellites include the final rocket stages that place satellites in orbit and formerly useful satellites that later become defunct. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs). Most satellites also have a method of communication to ground stations, called transponders. Many satellites use a standardized bus to save cost and work, the most popular of which are small CubeSats. Similar satellites can work together as groups, forming constellatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
