Page 24 - aruba-today-20190525

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 25 May 2019
NASA's first-of-kind tests look to manage drones in cities

RENO, Nev. (AP) — NASA it finishes another regula-
has launched the final tion on identifying drones
stage of a four-year effort as they're flying — some-
to develop a national traf- thing industry analysts say
fic management system for could be years away.
drones, testing them in cit- Critics assert that the FAA
ies for the first time beyond has stymied the commer-
the operator's line of sight cial use of drones by ap-
as businesses look in the plying the same rigid safety
future to unleash the un- standard it uses for airlines.
manned devices in droves "There can be a lot of Sili-
above busy streets and con Valley mentality where
buildings. people don't want to wait.
Multiple drones took to the So, we're trying to strike
air at the same time above a balance between un-
downtown Reno this week leashing entrepreneurship
in a series of simulations and ensuring we're doing
testing emerging technol- it safely while trying to ac-
ogy that someday will be celerate acceptance of
used to manage hundreds drones in public," Johnson
of thousands of small un- said.
manned commercial air- Amazon and FedEx are
craft delivering packages, among the companies
pizzas and medical sup- In this May 21, 2019 photo, two drones fly above Lake Street in downtown Reno, Nev., on, as part that hope to send consum-
of a NASA simulation to test emerging technology that someday will be used to manage travel of
plies. hundreds of thousands of commercial, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) delivering packages. It er products by drone by
"This activity is the latest marked the first time such tests have been conducted in an urban setting. 2020. Drone delivery com-
and most technical chal- Associated Press pany Flirtey began testing
lenge we have done with delivery of defibrillators for
unmanned aerial systems," flew at each other no high- marks the first time simula- phy when it initiated tests in cardiac arrest patients last
said David Korsmeyer, as- er than city streetlights but tions have combined all 2015, culminating with this year in Reno under FAA
sociate director of research were able to avoid collid- those scenarios, said Chris fourth round of simulations, oversight.
and technology at NASA's ing through onboard track- Walach, executive direc- said Ron Johnson, project Johnson said cities pres-
Ames Research Center in ing systems connected to tor of the Nevada Institute manager for unmanned ent the biggest challenges
Mountain View, California. NASA's computers on the of Autonomous Systems, aircraft systems traffic man- because of limited, small
An autonomous drone ground. which is running the Reno agement at NASA's Ames landing areas among tall
took off Tuesday from the Similar tests have been con- tests of unnamed aerial ve- Research Center. buildings that create navi-
rooftop of a five-story ca- ducted in remote and rural hicles, or UAVs. "We are definitely in the 'run' gation and communica-
sino parking garage and areas. The Federal Aviation "When we began this proj- phase of this development tion problems.
landed on the roof of an- Administration has autho- ect four years ago, many of here in Reno," he said. He said it became appar-
other out of view across rized individual test flights in us wouldn't have thought The results will be shared ent early on that the travel
the street. It hovered as on- cities before but never for we'd be standing here to- with the FAA. The agency management plans for
board sensors adjusted for multiple drones or outside day flying UAVs with ad- outlined proposed rules in drones would have to be
gusty winds before return- the sight of the operator. vanced drone systems off January that would ease completely automated be-
ing close to the center of The new round of tests con- high-rise buildings," he said. restrictions on flying drones cause FAA air traffic con-
the launchpad. tinuing this summer in Reno The team adopted a over crowds but said it trollers can't handle the
Equipped with GPS, others and Corpus Christi, Texas, "crawl, walk, run" philoso- won't take final action until enormous workload.q

SpaceX launches 60 little satellites, with many more to come

By MARCIA DUNN grow in the next few years, pensive or unreliable.
AP Aerospace Writer Musk said. Other companies have
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Twelve launches of 60 sat- similar plans, including Proj-
— SpaceX has launched ellites each will provide reli- ect Kuiper from Jeff Bezos'
60 little satellites, the first able and affordable inter- Amazon and OneWeb.
of thousands that founder net coverage throughout According to Musk, Califor-
Elon Musk plans to put in or- the U.S., he said. Twenty- nia-based SpaceX can use
bit for global internet cov- four launches will serve Starlink revenue to develop
erage. most of the populated more advanced rockets
The recycled Falcon rocket world and 30 launches the and spacecraft to achieve
blasted off late Thursday entire world. That will be his ultimate goal of estab-
night. The first-stage boost- 1,800 satellites in total, with lishing a city on Mars.
er landed on an ocean A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket with a payload of 60 satellites for more planned after that. Musk, who also runs the
SpaceX's Starlink broadband network, lifts off from Space
platform following liftoff, as Launch Complex 40 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Sta- Musk told reporters last electric carmaker Tesla
the tightly packed cluster tion, Thursday, May 23, 2019. week there's "a fundamen- and other ventures, said
of satellites continued up- Associated Press tal goodness" to giving Starlink is one of the hardest
ward. people in all corners of the engineering projects he's
Musk said Friday all 60 flat- 500 pounds (227 kilograms) satellites have the capabil- globe choices in broad- encountered. The satellites
panel satellites were de- and has a single solar pan- ity of automatically dodg- band internet service. include a lot of new tech-
ployed and online a few el and a krypton-powered ing sizable pieces of space He's especially interested nology, and he warned last
hundred miles (kilometers) thruster for raising and junk. The orbiting constella- in reaching areas without week that some of them
above Earth. Each weighs maintaining altitude. The tion — named Starlink — will coverage or where it is ex- might not work.q