UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
The first Falcon Heavy rocket built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX soared on its maiden voyage today (Feb. 6) — a historic test flight that also sent a car toward Mars and included two confirmed booster landings. Billed as the world’s most powerful booster since NASA’s Saturn V, the Falcon Heavy rocket lifted off from Launch Pad 39A here at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) — the same site used by NASA’s Apollo moon missions and space shuttles — at 3:45 p.m. EST (2045GMT). Continue reading
During a recent technology demonstration at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Dr. Rosemarie Oelrich and Dr. Cory Stephanson unveiled a new way to detect buried and submerged mines. Continue reading
Kitty Hawk, a startup backed by Google co-founder Larry Page has revealed a flying car that’s in development and promised on the market by the end of 2017. Continue reading
Aireon has announced the successful launch and deployment of the first ten satellites hosting its space-based automatic dependent surveillance broadcast (ADS-B) system. Part of the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation, Aireon’s space-based ADS-B network will transform air traffic management capabilities, providing real-time air traffic surveillance and flight tracking across 100 percent of the planet. Continue reading
NASA has awarded Human Automation Teaming Solutions Inc. (HATS) a $1 million contract for a yearlong effort to develop R-HATS technology that will reduce the number of human operators needed to manage complex systems. By allowing the seamless sharing of tasks and responsibilities between automation and human, a single ground operator using R-HATS will simultaneously assist and monitor multiple manned or unmanned aircraft. Continue reading
Since the dawn of the Space Age, space vehicles have predominantly shared one major limitation – their fundamentally single-use, disposable nature, and the high mission expenses that inevitably entails. Continue reading
Engineers at BAE Systems have already launched a series of test flights in which the high-tech prototype flies by itself using computers while being monitored by operators sitting 15,000ft below it. Continue reading
Everything that flies must eventually land. Unless, say, it’s an all-electric drone that can recharge while in flight. Researchers at Imperial College London have demonstrated a way to transfer electricity wireless to a flying drone. Even better: they did so building on a concept pioneered by Nikola Tesla. Continue reading