Should NASA really begin science flights with a robotic jet?”
The Global Hawk drone is a robotic plane that is designed to stay up in the air at very high altitudes for an extended period of time. Nasa has acquired three of the aircraft from the United States Air Force, which used the planes for military surveillance work. “When they told us about this our scientific lust when through the roof,” says Dr Paul Newman, a project scientist and atmospheric physicist. “We knew that this was the plane that would enable us to do things that we could only dream about.” The Global Hawk can fly at altitudes above 60,000 feet (18.3km), which is roughly twice as high as a commercial aircraft. It can stay in the air for up to 30 hours and can travel up to 20,000km, half the circumference of the Earth. “It has many advantages,” says Dr Ken Jucks, programme manager for the Upper Atmosphere Research Programme. Nasa’s drone, the Global Hawk We can dip our science toes into more interesting phenomena with this plane Paul Newman, project scientist “We can observe so
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – One of NASA’s newest research jets soared high over the Pacific Ocean Tuesday on a 24-hour mission to study Earth’s atmosphere. Its pilot remained seated in an office chair in a windowless room in the Mojave Desert, monitoring the autonomous flight of the Global Hawk via an array of computer screens. Global Hawks were designed to perform high-altitude, long-endurance reconnaissance and intelligence missions for the Air Force, which has turned over to NASA three versions built in the developmental process. This month, NASA has begun putting one to work for the first time with flights over vast areas of the Pacific to demonstrate the scientific usefulness of the unmanned aircraft. “It’s never been used by a civilian agency, and it’s never been used for Earth science,” said David W. Fahey, a research physicist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Distinguished by its bulbous, whale-shaped nose, top-mounted engine and V-tail, the Global
