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Destination Tomorrow - DT9 - Helios

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Subido el 28 de mayo de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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NASA Destination Tomorrow Segment describing NASA's new Helios aircraft that is remotely piloted to fly at high altitudes. The segment explains how the Helios is a type of satellite to collect a variety of information in the atmosphere.

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Hello, everyone, I'm Steele McGonigal. 00:00:00
And I'm Kara O'Brien, and welcome to Destination Tomorrow. 00:00:05
This program will uncover how past, present, and future research is creating today's knowledge 00:00:08
to answer the questions and solve the challenges of tomorrow. 00:00:13
NASA's new Helios aircraft is a remotely piloted flying wing, which is designed to operate 00:00:16
at high altitudes for several months at a time. 00:00:21
Built with ultralight composite materials and with a wingspan of 247 feet, the Helios 00:00:24
exceeds the overall length of a Boeing 747. 00:00:30
Often referred to as an atmospheric satellite, Helios' mission is to conduct a wide variety 00:00:33
of Earth and atmospheric science missions while flying on the edge of the atmosphere. 00:00:38
Helios could also monitor weather, track hurricanes, and provide coverage of disaster sites such 00:00:43
as fires, flooding, and earthquakes in order to precisely direct emergency resources. 00:00:48
Helios could also provide telecommunications and other services at a fraction of the cost 00:00:53
of satellites, while providing a reliable means of collecting vital information. 00:00:57
Greg Provan spoke with John Del Frate about the future of Helios and its unique design. 00:01:01
Since the early 60s, the world has relied on satellites for a variety of different applications, 00:01:10
including use in the telecommunications field and in weather observations. 00:01:15
Although satellites have revolutionized the way we live, they are not only very expensive 00:01:19
to build and fly into space, they sometimes don't make it into space at all. 00:01:23
To help find new and less expensive ways to fulfill the need for satellite usage, researchers 00:01:28
at NASA are developing an innovative type of low-cost aircraft. 00:01:32
It's called the Helios and may be able to work much like a satellite, but at a fraction 00:01:36
of the cost. 00:01:40
This so-called atmospheric satellite will be able to fly at high altitudes for months 00:01:41
at a time, providing a low-cost solution to current satellites. 00:01:45
I spoke with John Del Frate to find out more. 00:01:49
NASA's developing an experimental airplane and we're using some technology that's been 00:01:53
developed over the last 10, 20 years. 00:01:59
We want to use solar cell technology and some very lightweight aircraft structure technology. 00:02:02
By putting those two together, we think that we can build an airplane that can fly very 00:02:08
high and then more importantly, fly very long. 00:02:12
We want to be able to do the mission of a satellite in some ways and in this case, because 00:02:16
we're doing it on an airplane, it would be like a poor man's satellite. 00:02:23
So why do you think this would be a better solution than using existing satellites? 00:02:27
Well, there's a few advantages that this kind of an airplane would give you over a regular 00:02:30
satellite. 00:02:35
For one, it's a lot less expensive. 00:02:36
The other aspect is the satellite gets launched and the technology is ancient already. 00:02:38
An airplane like this could use technology that is current, the stuff that the scientists 00:02:45
have just developed. 00:02:49
Put it on the airplane, go up, fly it, test it, see how it does, bring it back down, change 00:02:50
it. 00:02:55
A satellite, once it's up there, it's pretty much up there. 00:02:56
So the hope is to have the Helios fly for months at a time. 00:02:59
How's it going to stay in the air that long? 00:03:02
We've already licked the problem of being able to fly under solar power. 00:03:04
But now the question is, you know, we've got solar power, what happens when the sun goes 00:03:09
down? 00:03:13
Well, we're developing a system that is like a rechargeable battery, for example. 00:03:14
During the day, whatever excess power is produced by the solar cells, we capture that and store 00:03:19
it on board. 00:03:25
And then at nighttime when the sun goes down, we use that power to power the electrical 00:03:26
systems on the airplane. 00:03:30
Although the Helios prototype uses new space-age materials, the design is actually very simple. 00:03:32
Weighing in at just about 1,600 pounds, this ultra-lightweight, electrically powered, all-wing 00:03:37
aircraft is constructed mostly of composite materials. 00:03:42
It's assembled in six sections, each about 41 feet long, with an underwing pod attached 00:03:45
at each panel. 00:03:50
The pods carry the battery power system, flight control computers, data instrumentation, and 00:03:51
the landing gear. 00:03:56
The aircraft is powered by 14 electric motors, producing about 2 horsepower each, which drive 00:03:57
lightweight, high-altitude propellers. 00:04:02
This amount of power allows the aircraft to cruise between 19 and 27 miles per hour, with 00:04:05
takeoff and landing speeds roughly about the same as a bicycle. 00:04:09
The electric motors are solar powered, enabling the aircraft to produce enough energy during 00:04:12
the day to stay aloft. 00:04:16
When the sun goes down, the craft relies on proton exchange membrane fuel cell technology 00:04:18
to power the motors. 00:04:22
These unique fuel cells combine oxygen and hydrogen to produce electric power, heat, 00:04:24
and water. 00:04:28
As long as these gases are supplied, the unit continues to produce power, allowing the aircraft 00:04:29
to remain airborne for days at a time. 00:04:34
So what are some other potential uses for the Helios? 00:04:36
We believe the airplane could be used to do some science research. 00:04:38
Basically, the airplane can be loaded with sensors and instruments that study the Earth's 00:04:42
atmosphere, look down, study things on the ground, and you could be looking at volcanoes. 00:04:49
You could look at the humidity in the air, the temperature of the air, a whole lot of 00:04:54
things that could be studied. 00:04:59
So science is important to NASA, and this airplane could do some really good science 00:05:01
over the next 10 years or so. 00:05:06
Along those same lines, to be able to look down and look at the health of your forests, 00:05:08
to be looking at the health of crops, the health of your coral reef, the health of your 00:05:15
river ways could be provided, I think, in a much more consistent fashion. 00:05:21
So John, what are your hopes for the future of the Helios? 00:05:25
Well, we see Helios going all over the world, tens, hundreds, thousands of these airplanes. 00:05:28
In fact, some of the applications, I think, are still to be discovered. 00:05:33
There's all kinds of things that we envision as being exciting ways of improving people's 00:05:37
life here on Earth. 00:05:42
It's exciting because I think that for a lot of people, even for aeronautical-type engineers 00:05:44
just 10, 20, 30 years ago, I think they were kind of thinking airplanes have pretty much 00:05:49
kind of reached the limits, you know, let's concentrate somewhere else. 00:05:53
But you know, some of the things that are going on at NASA tell us otherwise. 00:05:57
There's a lot of exciting stuff that's still left to be discovered, and this is just one 00:06:00
part of that. 00:06:05
NASA researchers believe that a Helios-type aircraft may one day fly in the thin Martian 00:06:07
atmosphere, which is similar to the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere. 00:06:11
Up next, a revolutionary new technology is helping improve the early detection of breast 00:06:15
cancer. 00:06:20
But first, did you know that the Helios broke the altitude record for non-rocket-powered 00:06:21
aircraft? 00:06:25
The original record of 85,068 feet was set in 1976 by the Mach 3-capable SR-71 Blackbird. 00:06:26
The Helios, flying at speeds around 20 miles an hour, climbed above 99 percent of the Earth's 00:06:34
atmosphere and set the new record of 96,863 feet in the summer of 2001. 00:06:39
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
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Autor/es:
NASA LaRC Office of Education
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
484
Fecha:
28 de mayo de 2007 - 17:04
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
NASAs center for distance learning
Duración:
06′ 47″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
Resolución:
480x360 píxeles
Tamaño:
39.53 MBytes

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