Ackerman, Evan, et al. “Video Friday: Drone Helps Explore World's Deepest Ice Caves.” IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News, 11 Sept. 2020, 20:45 GMT, spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-hardware/video-friday-flyability-drone-greenland.
Article title:
Video Friday: Drone Helps Explore World's Deepest Ice Caves
Photo: Flyability
My summary of the article:
Exploring ice caves by unnecessarily dangerous when done by humans, especially since recent global warming has made ice more vulnerable to breaking. Yet, exploring ice caves also come with high value because it reveals the history of the Earth and may contain other resources or information that are valuable for mankind. To make exploring ice caves possible without direct human involvement, engineers from Flyability has manufactured a flying, obstacle-resistant drone that can be used to detect and investigate features of ice caves, replacing the lethal job that otherwise had to be done by a person. The drone is called the Elios, a drone capable of traveling into ice caves with depths as deep as 202 meters – places where climbers had never been able to explore before.
The Elios has newly discovered a lake on the icy floor of the deepest crevasse in Greenland ever found. The Elios, however, has much more potential than being just an ice cave exploring drone. Researchers and engineers involved in the making of the Elios suggest that the Elios may be able to be implemented in exploring the depths of Mars and the icy moons of Jupiter.
My response to the article:
The video shown in the article shows the magnificence of the Elios exploring the undiscovered depths of ice crevasses in Greenland. I was inspired by the level of precise controlling of drones despite the low temperatures of ice caves, and hearing that climbing (or declining into) ice caves is an extremely hazardous job for humans made me have a profound respect for the philanthropic mission Flyability has achieved with the engineering of the Elios. It showed me the true value of becoming an engineer – to save and help the lives of others by science and technology.
The insight that the Elios may be, in the future, implemented in the exploration of extraterrestrial systems was indeed very exciting to hear. I believe this is possible because the Elios has been developed to perform optimally in rare, unearth-like low temperature environments. I hope one day there are drones out there in extraterrestrial systems taking photos and recording videos of how such distant terrains look like from a drone's primary perspective.
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