Smart Rotorcraft Field Assistants for Terrestrial and Planetary Science

Abstract

Field science in extreme terrestrial environments is often difficult and sometimes dangerous. Field seasons are also often short in duration. Robotic "field assistants," particularly small highly mobile rotary-wing platforms, have the potential to significantly augment a field season's scientific return on investment for geology and astrobiology researchers by providing an entirely new suite of sophisticated field tools. Robotic rotorcraft and other vertical lift planetary aerial vehicle also hold promise for supporting planetary science missions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA529842

Entities

People

  • Geoffrey A. Briggs
  • Larry A. Young

Organizations

  • National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Sensors
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Deployment
  • Environment
  • Experimental Data
  • Extreme Environments
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Micro Air Vehicles
  • Payload
  • Planetary Sciences
  • Robotics
  • Rotary Wing Aircraft
  • Space Sciences
  • Vehicles

Readers

  • Geospatial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence Analytics
  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • AI & ML - DoD AI Strategy
  • Autonomy