Comments on: NASA Sends Drone To Keep An Eye On Hurricane Leslie http://revmodo.com/2012/09/08/nasa-sends-drone-to-keep-an-eye-on-hurricane-leslie/ Covering the clean energy industry Sun, 04 Nov 2012 07:47:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Tim Reynoldshttp://revmodo.com/2012/09/08/nasa-sends-drone-to-keep-an-eye-on-hurricane-leslie/#comment-1028 Tim Reynolds Sun, 09 Sep 2012 01:50:00 +0000 http://revmodo.com/?p=8443#comment-1028 I ll have to disagree with you Robert. Being raised on the Gulf Coast I am well aware of the inadequacies of using a single tool to predict the forces of hurricanes. Additionally if drones not only feed more vitally needed information but also reduces the number of man missions by the C-130 Hurricane Hunters I ll pay for the drones. Finally the hurricanes provide an excellent endurance and technological testbed for the drones. I ll have to disagree with you Robert. Being raised on the Gulf Coast I am well aware of the inadequacies of using a single tool to predict the forces of hurricanes. Additionally if drones not only feed more vitally needed information but also reduces the number of man missions by the C-130 Hurricane Hunters I ll pay for the drones. Finally the hurricanes provide an excellent endurance and technological testbed for the drones.

]]> By: Robert Steinhaushttp://revmodo.com/2012/09/08/nasa-sends-drone-to-keep-an-eye-on-hurricane-leslie/#comment-1025 Robert Steinhaus Sun, 09 Sep 2012 00:54:00 +0000 http://revmodo.com/?p=8443#comment-1025 Weather satellites also monitor tropical storms - flying drones seems an uncertain additional benefit. Drones are costly, and while they to save risk to a pilot (which is important in a war zone) it is hard to justify the expense and risk of a drone for what additional weather information that can be had by flying them.Cost of UAVsReaper UAV (MQ-9)/Predator (MW01) costs $31.3 million each (as per DOD 2013 budget request)Global Hawk UAV (RQ-4A/B, MQ-4 costs $211.1 million each (as per DOD 2013 budget request)If you put these expensive unmanned aircraft at risk in a storm to acquire data that you could get from a weather balloon, you may end up providing NOAA with a unnecessary high tech toy that produces doubtful benefit for the public. Weather satellites also monitor tropical storms – flying
drones seems an uncertain additional benefit. Drones are costly, and while they
to save risk to a pilot (which is important in a war zone) it is hard to
justify the expense and risk of a drone for what additional weather information
that can be had by flying them.

Cost of UAVs

Reaper UAV (MQ-9)/Predator (MW01) costs $31.3 million each
(as per DOD 2013 budget request)

Global Hawk UAV (RQ-4A/B, MQ-4 costs $211.1 million each (as per DOD 2013
budget request)

If you put these expensive unmanned aircraft at
risk in a storm to acquire data that you could get from a weather balloon, you
may end up providing NOAA with a unnecessary high tech toy that produces
doubtful benefit for the public.

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