Yesterday at NASA Ames, the Governator praised an aerial drone that the research facility acquired and modified for scientific use. The infrared sensors NASA installed on board also turn out to be great for battling wildfires.
The drone, named Ikhana (a Native American Choctaw word meaning "intelligent" or "aware"), has been outfitted with the sensors to use for Earth science and global warming research.
But when the recent spate of wildfires hit, Ikhana was sent out to help the firefighting effort.
It was surprisingly successful: Ikhana found a hot spot at the bottom of a canyon just east of the town where fire crews hadn’t expected any problems. With the data, fire fighters were able to re-deploy to block the hot spot from spreading towards the Sierra town of Paradise. They immediately evacuated 10,000 people and successfully kept the fire from overtaking the town.
The drone is able to carry more than a ton of payload at high altitude for over 24 hours. Currently engineers at NASA Dryden are working to make the flight systems more autonomous.
"I wish I’d had this tool 20 years ago," said Del Walter, assistant regional chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The sensors can transmit the data and pictures back to ground stations and the people who need it in real time. They can also see through smoke, something very useful to the fire fighters.
To date the California wildfires have burned more acres (over 850,000) than any previous wildfires in California’s history. Luckily, however, only 280 structures have burned, as apposed to the 3,000 homes that were lost in the fall 2008 wildfires.
Governor Schwarzenegger and NASA Highlight Infrared Scanning Technology Helping to Fight California’s Wildfires [California.gov] (special points to the Governor for having a very cool website with easy to find videos and pics)
Image courtesy of Governor’s office, NASA
