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Volunteers for aerial photography of Gulf oil spill needed

Posted by Mark Willis on May 10, 2010 at 11:30am

The folks over at Grass Roots Mapping are looking for people with low altitude aerial photography skills to help map the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Volunteer at their website http://grassrootsmapping.org/volunteer/

This may be a good opportunity to show the benefits of UAVs to the community at large.

-Mark W.

p.s. I'm not involved with Grass Roots Mapping. Just passing along the info.

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Comments

  • Paul Mather May 14, 2010 at 2:32pm
    My personal UAV, I'm with you. I don't have any plans on sending my UAV to Afghanistan any time soon.... However, if it's a question of putting a US pilot in harm's way or a UAV, I'm going to say UAV every time. It really is the future of warfare. Fully armed amazingly maneuverable UAVs being instructed from half way across the globe. I think piloting is soon going to be a thing of the past as the human reflexes are already a hinderance to performance. That being said, that has nothing to do with "my" UAV.

    What about counting deer populations or checking for roof leaks with thermal imaging. What about reading gas or electric meters from the air. How about search & rescue missions looking for lost tree huggers in the wilderness or on a mountain somewhere. Those are all valid uses for slightly better than hobby grade UAV's. Trying to drum up shock and awe photos of pending doom are already being covered HEAVILY by the main stream media. They have helicopters for that and far bigger budgets than we do.... so let's leave the muck-raking to the pros.....
  • Daniel Gru May 14, 2010 at 1:34pm
    I'd rather have my UAV associated with treehuggers instead of guns and killed afghans..

    Well, personal opinion, i just wish i could be a part of it, if i was not based in europe...

    Daniel
  • Paul Mather May 14, 2010 at 1:16pm
    I understand your point, however, I do not agree that this is not a good medium to show off the "usefullness" of hobby grade UAV's. If our "toys" get lumped in with windmills and solar panels as a tool of the left... as just another way to cram some political/pseudo-religious viewpoint down the sheeple's throats....then I want no part of it. It becomes another joke of the junk science community.

    I don't know that there will ever be a "killer app" for the hobby UAV but I know that watching oil slicks isn't it....
  • Daniel Gru May 14, 2010 at 12:53pm
    No matter now if you see it as a hoax or not (different opinions, and i don't want to get into that), UAVs are a great way to map vast areas, and if someone sees it on something so media-omnipresent like the oil spill, they may see the need for our "toys" ;-)

    Daniel
  • Paul Mather May 14, 2010 at 12:33pm
    Couldn't they find a less political avenue? I'd prefer hobby grade UAV's not be involved with the man-made global warming hoax or any other project of the environmentalist religion.

    I would also be opposed to hobby grade UAV's being associated with 419 scams, SPAM email and telemarketers....if that was possible....
  • Daniel Gru May 14, 2010 at 11:45am
    And where is the problem with that?
    They are trying to show the effects of the oil spill. regardless if their pledge for oil-rig-ban is going to work, i think that is something very interesting, and it could do wonders to profile how good our UAVs work!

    Daniel
  • Paul Mather May 14, 2010 at 10:56am
    No, I got that quote off their website. Their working to get citizens out to produce high-resolution aerial imagery of the spill's effects [in hopes to get junk legislation passed to ban off shore drilling without even considering the effects of such a ban]. Stewart and Oliver are already involved with this project. This is a full court press by the political wing of the environmental movement to try and document the evils of big oil and try to justify green energy (currently a farce).
  • Ron Jacobs May 12, 2010 at 6:15pm
    So, do you think Grass Roots Mapping should get in touch withStewart Long and Oliver Yeh?
  • Paul Mather May 12, 2010 at 5:36pm
    I hate to say it, but nothing positive can come of their project.

    Stewart Long and Oliver Yeh have emerged as some of the top experts in this nascent field and collaborated with Jeff to organize the Gulf Oil Mapping project. Starting in early May, we have been working with New Orleans-based Louisiana Bucket Brigade to get citizens out on boats and along beaches to produce high-resolution aerial imagery of the spill’s effects. All the imagery from this project is being released into the public domain.

    It's knee jerk pseudo science in action. "Ban off shore drilling, see what it causes!!!" When in reality, there will be no change in demand so the oil will simply have to be brought in on oil tankers...which are FAR more likely to leak or crash than an off shore oil rig.
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