Unmanned Preferred Over Manned Exploration

Assignment 5.4 - Research Blog 4: Unmanned Systems Space-Based Applications

Don Moore

UNSY 501 Applications of Unmanned Systems

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University 

My chosen article for this week clearly sides with unmanned space exploration over manned expiration.  The author points out a logical key points for both sides of the argument however, in the end he states that he’s “not saying that we should explore the solar system purely robotically.  But we can do a huge amount with robots, as our partners in this exploration of the solar system, and as extensions of ourselves as our eyes and hands and senses on remote moons and planets” (Walker, 2015). Siding with the autonomous point of view, the author points out the following:

·      Unmanned spacecraft don’t have minimum fixed weight and sizes

·      Unmanned spacecraft can go almost anywhere

·      Unmanned spacecraft can go into dormancy or low energy observation states

·      Unmanned spacecraft can be sterilized for planetary protection

Unmanned spacecraft don’t have minimum fixed weight and sizes

The spacecraft must be large enough to house humans; as we all know humans require certain equipment and necessities in order to operate and survive.  Humans need enough room to exercise; we need life support systems, and we will require large amounts of space for supplies such as food.  “Spacecraft has to be built to hold in ten tons per square meter of atmospheric pressure, leading to bulky designs usually based around cylinders or spheres, like the ISS” (Walker, 2015).  The Human spacecraft “may need to spin for artificial gravity at any rate something needs to be done to deal with issues of zero g. Robots are absolutely fine in zero g” (Walker, 2015).  One of the things that we must keep in mind is that humans require food, so for deep space missions more food and equipment will be needed.

Unmanned spacecraft can go almost anywhere

Unmanned spacecraft can be built to go to places that are currently impossible for him is to go.  These places include those with a high radiation; the surface of Venus, within close proximity to the sun, and the Galilean satellites of Jupiter.

Unmanned spacecraft can go into dormancy or low energy observation states

During space travel there is no requirement for sustenance, packing, stretching, and they can lay dormant until needed.  For long mission such as going to Mars; forms of cryogenic sleep will not be a necessity.  “On the surface of a planet, you can leave it observing something for months on end, or doing a long experiment, and it will never get bored or tired, or require resupply to stay alive. Just solar panels, or an RTG, is enough to keep it healthy indefinitely” (Walker, 2015). 

Unmanned spacecraft can be sterilized for planetary protection

The writer made an interesting point in saying that “humans could land on a vulnerable target, in principle, if you enclosed them in a totally impervious and immensely strong sphere and sterilized the outside. But what is the point? As they couldn't get out and just have to observe from inside? They might as well be in orbit and explore via ” (Walker, 2015).  These types of precautions are not needed for unmanned missions because Robots can be sterilized to the requirements needed for planetary protection.

Manned Missions Benefits

The writer also gave a few benefits of conducting manned missions.   Some of the more important benefits were decision-making and adaptability.  The benefit of decision-making comes into play when quick accurate decisions need to be made for unexpected situations and or adapting to unaccounted for secondary missions.  With that being said the writer pointed out that there is usually nothing on an unmanned mission that needs to be responded to instantly. 

Conclusion

In my humble opinion I currently there is no need for strictly manned.  I believe that all space missions can be conducted autonomously but human involvement remains necessary.  I also believe that telepresence would be a logical solution however due to latency this solution would only work if communication methods were enhanced. I believe that the price tag is one of the deciding factors, so if we could find a way to bring the price down; manned mission would be more frequent. An astronomer by the name of Dan Lester envisions a solution, which would make the process of cheaper.  He suggests that astronauts should camp out on Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos and order remote-controlled robots to drive long distances over the planet’s surface, set up geologic instruments, and collect samples for analysis. He estimates this could greatly reduce costs because roughly half the price tag of a manned mission is spent on getting people down and back up the deep gravity well of a planet” (Mann, 2012).

Reference

Mann, A. (2012, April 12). Humans vs. Robots: Who Should Dominate Space Exploration? Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2012/04/space-humans-vs-robots/ 

Walker, R. (2015, May 3). Why is unmanned exploration preferred to manned exploration? Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Why-is-unmanned-exploration-prefered-to-manned-exploration

The Future of Commercial UAS

Assignment 4.4 - Research Blog 3: Unmanned Aerospace Systems

Don Moore

UNSY 501 Applications of Unmanned Systems

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University 

Growth is the prediction for the future of commercial UAS according to U.S. Aviation officials in an article written in the Insurance journal magazine. While many remain in doubt; the framework for the future of commercial UAS/Drones is currently being written.  Many businesses within the real estate, insurance, and agriculture sectors are deeply invested in the present as well as the future use of UAS/Drones.  The FAA also seems to be on board and taking steps for the integration of UAS into the National Airspace (NAS) and making forecasts for future growth in UAS/Drone usage. For example “In its most recent aviation forecast, “the Federal Aviation Administration estimates that combined total hobbyist and commercial UAS sales will rise from 2.5 million in 2016 to 7 million in 2020. Hobbyist UAS purchases may grow from 1.9 million in 2016 to as many as 4.3 million by 2020.  Sales of drones for commercial purposes are expected to grow from 600,000 in 2016 to 2.7 million by 2020” (Insurance Journal, 2016)”. 

 I believe that in order for commercial UAS to flourish; clear rules need to be established.  As of August 29, 2016 the FAA has tweaked the rules so that the waiting period for COA’s would not stop those who have certain qualifications from operating small UAS.  The Tweak is formally known as FAR Part 107 -Small Unmanned Aircraft Regulation; it covers a broad spectrum of commercial uses for drones weighing less than 55 pounds (FAA, 2016b). Part 107 lists many of the rules that would be established in section 333 Exemptions. The fairly new exemption also has added certifications and requirements such as pilot certification, UAS certification/ inspection and privacy requirements (FAA, 2016b). 

 The FAA predicts that small UAS/drones will be broken down into two categories, which are high end and low end (Insurance Journal, 2016). The average sales price for high-end drones will be about $40,000 per UAS/drone and the low end UAS/drone average sales price will be about $2,500 (Insurance Journal, 2016).  Currently the FAA predicts that once all rules are set in there will be about 542,500 small commercial UAS/drones operating within the UAS (Insurance Journal, 2016).

 Although, the FAA is working with the UAS commercial industries; I believe that studying beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) will accelerate the future commercial use of UAS. BVLOS is defined as “flying an unmanned aircraft without the Remote Pilot having to keep the unmanned aircraft in visual line of sight at all times. Instead, the Remote Pilot flies the aircraft by instruments from a Remote Pilot Station” (ACUO). I am not alone in saying that BVLOS will slingshot commercially used UAS  “Venture capitalists are already investing considerable amounts of money into this emerging industry with the intention to build early market share in this technology,” (Insurance Journal, 2016). “Manufacturers’ efforts are focused on building systems optimized for particular segments of the market (Insurance Journal, 2016). Unmanned aircraft systems will be the most dynamic growth sector within aviation” (Insurance Journal, 2016).. The FAA is also I’m doing its part to study BVLOS in a program called the Focus area pathfinder. The Pathfinder program explores incremental expansion of UAS in the NAS in the following areas:

-Visual line of sight (VLOS) operations over people

-Extended visual line of sight (EVLOS) operations in rural areas

-BVLOS operations in rural/ isolated areas.

The FAA is working with at least three organizations in order to combat this task.  VLOS operations are being studied by CNN; they will explore how UAS could be safely used for newsgathering and populated areas (FAA, 2016a). EVLOS operations are being studied by Precision Hawk; they will explore how UAS flights outside the pilot's direct vision might allow greater UAS use for crop monitoring in precision agriculture operations (FAA, 2016a). BVLOS operations are being studied by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railways; they will explore command-and-control challenges of using UAS to inspect rail system infrastructure (FAA, 2016a).

As it currently stands unlawful UAS sightings reported by commercial pilots have increased.  Although the future of commercial UAS seems promising; the FAA, the commercial industry, and law enforcement agencies we’ll need to work together for the building of illegal UAS prosecution plans. I believe that if the future commercial UAS is to continue to accelerate; options for rogue/Illegal UAS Capture, destruction, in prosecution should also be explored.

References

Australian Certified UAV Operators. (n.d.). How do we see them: VLOS, EVLOS, BVLOS & FPV? Retrieved 2014, from http://www.acuo.org.au/industry-information/terminology/how-do-we-see-them/ 

FAA. (2016, June 14a). Focus Area Pathfinder Program. Retrieved from https://www.faa.gov/uas/programs_partnerships/focus_area_pathfinder/

FAA. (2016, June 21b). Fact Sheet – Small Unmanned Aircraft Regulations (Part 107). Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=20516 

Insurance Journal, (2016, March 29). The Future of Commercial Drone Use. Retrieved from http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2016/03/29/403149.htm 

The Future of UMS

Assignment 3.4 - Research Blog 2: Unmanned Maritime Systems

Don Moore

UNSY 501 Applications of Unmanned Systems

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University 

If someone were to mention an unmanned vehicle most of us would probably think that they were talking about a UAS, UAV, or Ariel Drone.  The reason behind this thought process is because until recently unmanned maritime vehicles (UMV), Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), and Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) have been quietly advancing underwater away from the scrutiny of the world.

In May of this year deputy Secretary of Defense Robert work appeared at the Atlantic Council and spoke about a topic called Third Offset Strategy.  The deputy secretary explains, “The Third Offset is really kind of simple at its core. It basically hypothesizes that the advances in artificial intelligence and autonomy – autonomous systems – is going to lead to a new era of human-machine collaboration and combat teaming” (Pomerleau, 2016).  Additionally, he was quoted saying that “Collaboration is using the tactical acuity of a computer to help a human make better decisions and human-machine combat teaming is using manned and unmanned platforms” (Pomerleau, 2016).  One example of the collaboration, which the Deputy Sec. Speaks about is the use of the Navy’s prototype, unmanned sub-hunting ships.  One of the sub hunting ships is the Sea Hunter, it weighs about 140 tons and extends 130 feet in length (McCaney, 2016).  To be politically correct the vessel is actually an Anti-Submarine warfare Continuous Trail unmanned vessel or ACTUV.   The uniqueness of this vessel is that unlike many other developing UUV’s the Sea Hunter can travel farther, stay out longer and can be launched from a peer, which would save the Navy the trouble of integrating it with another ship (McCaney, 2016).

Taking the third offset into consideration, collaboration can be made with the Sea hunter and the Echo voyager. The Boeing “Echo Voyager is a new approach to how unmanned undersea vehicles will operate and be used in the future,” said Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works” (McCaney, 2016). Boeing officials also state that unlike unmanned aerial vehicles, which can transmit ISR data and be operated via the airwaves, submerged vehicles often are tethered in order to maintain communications links. The Echo Voyager will be able to operate independently, can collect data while at sea, rise to the surface, and provide information back to users in a near real-time environment,” (McCaney, 2016). I believe that one of the most fantastic features of the echo Voyager is that it can stay out at for six months straight. The reason why this vessel can stay out for this extended time is because it has its own battery charger aboard which allows the vessel to self-charge. 

I believe that one of the most interesting things that the deputy secretary of defense state it was that “the Pentagon is not trying to create machines that can write their own code, make decisions, or lock out humans from intervening (McCaney, 2016).  The deputy sec. also went on to ensure everyone that Skynet from the movie The Terminator was not being created” (McCaney, 2016).   In my humble opinion the future of unmanned vehicles will be promising as long as we as humans understand that these unmanned vessels should not be used until they’re proven to be safe.  I also believe that we his humans need to be a little more open-minded; the unmanned vehicles are not here to takeover our lives and leave us jobless.  I see a future when most of us will understand that everything operating unmanned is actually an extension of ourselves.

References

McCaney, K. (2016, March 14). Boeing's new autonomous UUV can run for months at a time' Defense Systems. Retrieved from https://defensesystems.com/articles/2016/03/14/boeing-echo-voyager-uuv.aspx

McCaney, K. (2016, April 12). Large, sub-hunting drone 'the shape of things to come' Defense Systems. Retrieved from https://defensesystems.com/articles/2016/04/12/darpa-actuv-unmanned-ship-christening.aspx

Pomerleau, M. (2016, May 4). DOD's Third Offset Strategy: what man and machine can do together' Defense Systems. Retrieved from https://defensesystems.com/articles/2016/05/04/dod-work-on-third-offset-strategy.aspx