Contact:
Keith
Koehler
Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia.
(Phone: 757/824-1579)
March
04, 2004 - RELEASE: 04 – 15
AEROSONDE UAV COMPLETES FIRST OPERATIONAL
FLIGHTS AT NASA WALLOPS
A small, unmanned airplane recently conducted
flights along the Virginia coast showing its capability to support NASA science
missions.
NASA and Aerosonde North America, Inc., conducted several flights
of the Aerosonde unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) February 20 through 27.
The
flights showed the ability of the small UAV to operate from the runways of the
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island,
Va.; fly a predetermined flight mission; and gather scientific data. The flights
operated in the controlled airspace at Wallops, but the concepts demonstrated
could be applicable to future missions over less tightly controlled airspace.
The Aerosonde UAV flew a NASA instrument that measures Global Positioning
System (GPS) signals reflected from the Earth surface. Using these reflected signals
over land, scientists can infer surface soil moisture and over water derive winds
speeds and surface roughness or waves heights.
Stephen Katzberg, NASA
Langley Research Center’s principal investigator for the GPS reflection experiment,
said, “The Aerosonde UAV with the NASA GPS reflectomer performed well together
and we are currently extracting surface reflection information from the flight
data.”
He noted that the instrument has flown on manned aircraft
but this is the first time it was flown on a UAV. “The ability to fly this
instrument on the Aerosonde will allow us to fly into or around weather systems
such as tropical storms without endangering humans,” Katzberg said.
In
addition to the NASA instruments, Aerosonde North America flew a suite of instruments
to measure temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speeds in the atmosphere.
Maurice Gonella, Aerosonde UAV Facility manager at Wallops, said, “We
are pleased to be able to collaborate with NASA in proving the operational capability
of the GPS instrument on a UAV. These flights open the door to develop and fly
other science instruments around the world to study Earth’s systems.”
The Aerosonde UAV offers scientists the opportunity to conduct long duration
missions by flying continuously for more than 30 hours.
Long endurance
UAVs, such as the Aerosonde UAV, have the potential to fill the gap between satellites
and surface networks in the integrated global observing system. The in-situ measurements
gathered by instruments on these UAVs are used in conjunction with the larger
global datasets obtained from satellites.
Jay Pittman, chief of the Wallops
Range and Mission Management Office, said, “These operational flights are
a major step in developing the UAV for scientific studies. In cooperation with
Aerosonde and the scientific community, we are excited about the opportunities
small sensors and UAVs offer in Earth science research.”
“UAVs
open the door to completely new mission concepts that include so-called “sensor
web” missions where UAV platforms work collaboratively to gather scientific
data. We look forward to conducting these flights world-wide and to contributing
to the Agency’s ability to utilize next-generation platforms in support of
its missions,” said Pittman.
NASA and Aerosonde are determining the
feasibility of conducting Earth science research using small, long endurance UAVs
through a cooperative agreement.
For information about NASA on the Internet,
visit
For information about the Aerosonde UAV, visit