December
28, 1999 Report to Dr. Sherry Farwell by Dr. Andy Detwiler (SDSM&T)Trip to NASA Ames and CIRPAS
Thanks for supporting my visit to NASA Ames on 20 December. That visit was preceded by a visit by my NASA host, Tony Strawa, and me, to the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Vehicle Studies (CIRPAS), in Monterey on 17 December. There we met the center manager, Bob Bluth, and the facility science payload specialist, Haflidi Jonsson. Carl Friehe, from UC-Irvine, was also there working on instrument installation for an upcoming Sea of Japan air-sea transfer study.
CIRPAS currently maintains 4 aircraft. These include a Twin Otter (piloted), a Pelican (modified Cessna 337, optionally "inhabited"), and 2 UAV's (uninhabited airborne vehicles) called Altus and Predator. The UAV's are based on platforms used by the Air Force for reconnaissance, and have exceptional performance characteristics. They can fly for many hours, reach altitudes from 40 kft (Altus) to 60 kft (Predator), carry instrument payloads of 400 lbs. or more, and provide a couple of KW of power to the payload. To date, their main usage seems to have been in atmospheric radiation studies.
We discussed some of the nuts and bolts of doing airborne research, opportunities for airborne instrument development (the available funding seems to be mainly SBIR opportunities) and the NASA research announcement soon to hit the street (NASA-99-OES-xx) that requests proposals for research projects to demonstrate the scientific utility of UAV's. The main drawback to using UAV's in the Dakota's is their restricted use over populated areas (according to the FAA, I would suppose that the Prairie Pothole region is a populated area). Note: CIRPAS is affiliated with the Naval Postgraduate School, not NASA. However, NASA could fund work involving their airborne platforms.
After visiting CIRPAS on 17 and 18 December, I traveled north to Mountain View, and visited NASA Ames Research Center on 20 December. While there, I met with Steve Weggener to discuss use of UAV's in airborne research, Tony Strawa to discuss current earth sciences research in which Ames scientists participate, and Bob Chatfield, to discuss production of NOx by lightning in convective storms. I also presented a seminar to the airborne science group concerning an exploratory instrument development project, the M-meter, in which I had participated with support from our armored aircraft facility operation. There was mild interest in the concept. Ames is not an instrument shop itself, but does fund some instrument development by others, so these folks had some interest in new concepts like the M-meter.
As a follow-up, I am continuing to explore UAV capabilities and consider ways in which we might conduct some NASA-sponsored earth system research using UAV's.
I am glad to answer additional questions if you have any. Thanks again for your support.
Andy Detwiler
Institute of Atmospheric Sciences
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Rapid City, SD 57701
andy@ias.sdsmt.edu
605/394-2291 (voice)
605/394-6061 (fax)