NASA using ArduCopter

We've been using the ArduCopter platform at Marshall Space Flight Center for almost a year now.  We started with a 3DR Quad and have several 3DR Hex vehicles.  We're using them to test their capabilities for aerial reconnaissance as well as search and rescue.  This past week we used our Quad with a GoPro Hero3 to film a test flight of the Robotic Lunar Lander.  It was a fully autonomous flight (takeoff, ascent to 100' altitude, transit to loiter position, RTL once filming is complete, and landing).  As you can see from the video, we got some amazing footage from a very unique vantage point.  Thanks to 3DR and the devs for all your help and assistance!

 

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Comments

  • Thanks for sharing!Really inspiring video, and the music was good too! Will follow this more!

  • Amazing post!  And they say UAV is bad... pffst!

  • What's that UFO ?

    I'vent got such a thing in my camping site.
    francageral.pnh
  • nice ; )

  • Garrick and I are both civil servants with NASA. He works in the avionics group and I work in our propulsion group. We were given a little bit of play money to go work on UAV's and we do this stuff on the side. We have other people involved from other departments as well.

    Also, the lander uses pressure fed hydrogen peroxide as a main propellant. It is pushed through a silver catalyst bed which creates a pretty intense reaction and heats up the propellant which is then expanded through a nozzle to produce thrust. Since it is a lunar lander, there is one main motor which is dedicated toward canceling ~5/6 of Earth's gravity in order to produce a similar gravitational environment that it would see on the moon. That way, all of the additional controls and thrusters can be tuned and sized in a manner that is ideal for its end mission, a trip to the moon! It is pretty neat project. You should follow them on Twitter!

    https://twitter.com/NASAMightyEagle

  • Just incredible.....WOW...Just short of words....how did you get access to do that..are you with the NASA people ??...its just incredible to see how compressed gas can actually propel something that heavy so easily..... 

  • "This video was captured rather dramatically by the company's hexacopter."

    http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/23/spacexs-grasshopper-vtol-rocket-...

    Anyway, I love this music:p

  • Developer

    Garrick, you gotta contact Garry Q. They have been using jDrones ArduCopter since we made it's first batch many years ago. Since that many things has changed on it and it has been getting better and better. It is great to see that also other departments are adapting ArduCopter platform for their daily operations.

  • The music is We Can Make the World Stop by The Glitch Mob

  • MR60
    What is the music of this vid ?
This reply was deleted.