I wonder how big that receiving apparatus is. Whether the receiver is gimballed, or whether the drone itself has to fly a heading to aim at the sender: TBD.
Sorry I really fail to recognise how beaming 1kw of excited particles is a safe thing to do just like this…
Tiny nuclear reactor?
Tiny nuclear reactor?
But much of the stuff DARPA does seems weird. It’s not about ideas with solid foundation and thorough engineering, it’s about crapshoots that might work and would pay off in some way - often any financially feasible way.
They once put “cats” on guns in hopes it would surprise opponents even just for a quarter second, giving your spec ops dudes the advantage. They tried to create angled guns that could shoot around corners like 20 years ago. All kinds of crazy stuff! It would be a lot of fun to work there, I think.
Not sure how you would build one of those without the stress of the bullet during firing would not damage the barrel.
This is no different that what we were considering two decades ago for the space elevator competition. One of the problems with this approach is that as the photovoltaic cells heat up their overall efficiency decreases.
Super impressive! My only complain is that this was done at the White Sounds desert in New Mexico, at over 1200 meters of elevation. For maximum impact they should have done it in Florida on a hot humid day
Even Eglin wouldn’t be large enough.
This is a tech for arid environments - which seem to be where the US does most of its deployments these days.
janalsncm•6h ago
theamk•6h ago
This is so much worse in every aspect it's not really compareable.
naruhodo•2h ago
other_herbert•6h ago
bracketfocus•6h ago
So likely much lower than that.
throwaway81523•6h ago
pfdietz•4h ago
conradev•3h ago