Posted on 01/12/2012 6:10:12 AM PST by thackney
As a Russian fuel tanker plows through the frozen Bering Sea on its way to Nome, it has been getting help from an unlikely source: a drone that flies overhead and sends images of ice back to researchers onshore.
The camera-equipped drone looks like a smoke detector with wings and legs. It glides on 20-minute missions ranging from 10 feet to 320 feet above the ice, and its images can be instantly viewed on a tablet-type computer screen.
The tanker is bound for Nome, a town of 3,500 residents that missed its final pre-winter delivery of fuel by barge when a big storm swept the region last fall. Without the delivery of 1.3 million gallons, the city could run short of fuel before a barge delivery becomes possible in late spring.
Researchers were using the 2.5-pound drone to provide a large picture of the ice in hopes of getting the tanker as close to shore as possible, said Greg Walker, unmanned aircraft program manager for the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Geophysical Institute.
The 370-foot tanker is equipped with a hose more than a mile long for offloading, and pictures from the drone also will be used to figure out the best way to lay the hose.
(Excerpt) Read more at adn.com ...
The drone is also armed with HARM missiles to support its secondary mission to seek and destroy Inuit jihadists lurking in the ice-flows.
why is a Russian tanker delivering fuel to a town in Alaska, and where did this fuel come from, Russia?
why is a Russian tanker delivering fuel to a town in Alaska, and where did this fuel come from, Russia?
Because you can see Russia from Sarah’s front porch.
Because the combination of early sea ice, a bad storm and a late order made it impossible for the scheduled barge to complete the delivery late last year.
where did this fuel come from, Russia?
1 million gallons of Arctic-grade diesel that was loaded in Korea and about 300 thousand gallons of gasoline loaded in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
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