Space drone

A space drone is an unmanned spacecraft. It may be piloted from a location on Earth or through global positioning satellite (GPS) technology. Drones in general are also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or remotely piloted serial systems (RPAS). They offer a number of advantages over manned flight, including safety and cost and can be designed for a number of specific purposes. National space agencies such as the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) conduct ongoing research into several types of drones that can be used for exploratory missions in outer space. Drones that can operate in near space have also been developed for military purposes; for example, the US Air Force has launched experimental space drones, including the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle.

Background

Experimentation with unmanned flying devices began almost as soon as manned flight was accomplished in 1903. During World War I, the US Navy tried and failed to develop unmanned biplanes meant to bomb enemy territory. When America entered World War II, the US Navy used B-24 bombers rigged with explosives and remote control guidance with limited success: the planes required a pilot to get them to flying altitude and then parachute out before the plane complete its mission with remote guidance. Many crashed or exploded early, killing the pilot.

The military continued to make some use of unmanned craft for various purposes. However, it was not until computerized technology became available in the last two decades of the twentieth century that drones became reliable enough to be a major factor in military operations. Drones were used for surveillance in the Middle East and other areas of interest during the 1990s. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, armed drones were used to locate and kill suspected terrorists.

At the same time, industries have identified many other applications for drone technology. Drones have been used to help farmers monitor and improve their crops. Weather agencies sometimes use drones to monitor hazardous weather conditions instead of risking human lives to gather readings. Drones with on-board cameras have been used in search and rescue operations to fly over remote areas and to assist with three-dimensional mapping efforts. Some businesses have considered drones for making local deliveries, and individual hobbyists enjoy using drones to capture aerial views of everything from indoor celebrations to landscapes. Drones are ideal for many of these uses because they are much lower in cost to build and operate than manned vehicles, and they do not put human lives at risk during operation. These benefits make them useful for adaptation to space missions as well.

Overview

While organizations such as NASA that conduct missions in outer space have used unmanned vehicles for decades, most were either land vehicles, such as the Mars Rover, or transport vehicles that carried cargo to an orbiting space station. Satellites and space probes, too, fit some of the description of an unmanned vehicle but have not generally been considered drones. In the twenty-first century, several space agencies worked on unmanned vehicles that more specifically fit the definition of a drone, or a vehicle that can self-navigate using GPS or be controlled by a pilot who is outside the line of sight of the craft.

In 2010, the US Air Force launched the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle. Built by the Boeing, X-37B looked like a smaller version of the space shuttle NASA used for thirty years before retiring it in 2011. However, very little was known about the craft or its missions, as the Air Force and Boeing shared few details. It is a reusable vehicle, like the shuttle before it, and when it returned to Earth from its first eight-month mission it became the first US spacecraft to land itself on a runway.

NASA also worked on space drones to use in exploratory missions to Mars and other possible space destinations. One design, Ingenuity, was a small autonomous NASA helicopter that was delivered to Mars in February 2021 by the Perseverance rover. NASA envisioned Ingenuity making five flights across Mars, but the little helicopter, a space drone, made seventy-two in three years before its rotor blades became damaged. NASA ended its mission in 2024.

Other NASA space drone programs included extreme access flyers, or EAFs. These devices would launch from another larger craft that would land on the planet or asteroid being explored and serve as a base for the EAFs. One prototype EAF space drone was a quadcopter, resembling a four-legged platform or table of about five feet square (about one and a half meters) with four projecting arms, each with a small fan-like propeller at the end. These space drones would be able to travel to remote areas of space bodies that cannot be reached with land vehicles, such as rovers, and would be able to recharge their batteries and other fuel sources from the base lander.

Researchers face significant challenges in getting space drones operational, especially as they must be designed to fly in less gravity than Earth's and in thinner or no atmosphere. Despite these challenges, space drones have the potential to provide many benefits for agencies such as NASA. Space drones are much less expensive to deploy than manned craft. They can work without rest and can endure long voyages in space without the physical and mental health concerns that are factors in human explorers. Using drones also eliminates the risk to human life posed by space exploration while still providing quality information that can help scientists prepare for manned missions. By 2024, the United States had announced plans to send its Dragonfly rotorcraft, a space drone, to Titan, Saturn's moon. NASA set a launch date of July 2028, and the drone was projected to land on Titan in 2034.

Meanwhile, the military uses of space drones continued to be explored by governments around the world. Many of these designs resembled the military drones already in use but had improved capability to operate at extremely high altitudes considered near space—over twelve miles above sea level. The challenges of near space flight typically demand expensive, highly specialized craft, but researchers focused on developing cheaper options that could replace vulnerable satellites for data collection. Designs also focused on packing reconnaissance features into as small a size as possible, making the craft difficult to detect on radar. For example, in 2017, it was reported that the Chinese government had tested experimental drones the size of a bat that could be launched from a larger craft and glide into position, potentially in a swarm of hundreds at a time. In 2022, a US military space drone returned after nearly two-and-a-half years in orbit, a record length of time. The space drone was first launched in 2010 and has flown 1.3 billion miles during six missions. The 30-foot (9-meter) drone has a 15-foot wingspan and is powered by solar panels. One of the goals of its last mission was to test how certain materials react in space.

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