Re: Musings: Drones over destroyers


Message posted by casper_n (Member since 01/24/2011) on March 25, 2021 at 13:22:18 PST:

Sounds like Red Cell. I took a class from one of those guys once upon a time and he had some pretty hilarious stories of the shenanigans they got up to probing defenses at high value target sites.

As for the battery tech, I was once a fly on the wall for a dignitary tour at the Idaho National Labs (DOE energy lab, primarily) where the tour guide pointed out that one of the buildings was for "space batteries" -- small batteries, designed by nuclear engineers, that power rovers and micro satellites that don't have their own solar arrays. "Basically, he said, if you want to send it to space and have it work for a decade or more without recharging, we can build you that battery."

And then the building next store, he said, "same deal there, only for terrestrial applications."

"Wait, what's the use case for a terrestrial nuclear battery?"

"Let's imagine you're a 3 letter agency and you have a microphone that once you place it you will never be able to get to again. It's going to need a power source that essentially lasts forever."

I'm just thinking about this in a drone. It may never have to land. It could literally loiter until the motors burned out and could no longer spin the propellers to keep it aloft.


In Reply to: Musings: Drones over destroyers posted by Smythers on March 25, 2021 at 13:07:34 PST:

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