DARPA Unveils Speedy Solar-Powered Smart Blimp
Posted By Ariel Schwartz On March 22, 2010 @ 12:39 pm In Green Transportation,Solar Power | 2 Comments
The military often gets to check out exciting green technology before the general public. Case in point: DARPA [4]‘s new smart blimp, an automated, unmanned airship featuring an advanced radar system, solar cells [5], and a fuel cell to store energy at night. Dubbed The Integrated Sensor Is the Structure (ISIS [6]), the helium-filled blimp takes advantage of its radar system to offer up high-resolution images of battlefield scenes.
[7]
According to its creators at MITRE [8], the blimp can move at 60 knots during sustained trips and 100 knots during a sprint–so ISIS can make it to anywhere on Earth within 10 days of launch. Flying over six miles in the air, ISIS is able to avoid both ground-based missiles and air-to-air missiles.
So will we be flying around in speedy solar [9]-powered blimps sometime soon? Probably not. The Air Force and DARPA won’t have a prototype of ISIS ready until 2013, and consumer applications won’t come until much later. But eventually, the technology could change the way we use solar power for transportation.
+ MITRE [6]
Via Fast Company [10]
Article printed from Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building: http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/darpa-unveils-speedy-solar-powered-smart-blimp/
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[3] Email: mailto:?subject=http://inhabitat.com/darpa-unveils-speedy-solar-powered-smart-blimp/
[4] DARPA: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/02/17/pentagon-developing-cost-competitive-algae-for-jet-fuel/
[5] solar cells: http://www.inhabitat.com/solar-power/
[6] ISIS: http://www.mitre.org/news/digest/defense_intelligence/03_10/isis.html
[7] Image: http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/22/darpa-unveils-speedy-solar-powered-smart-blimp/darpa-isis-blimp-2/
[8] MITRE: http://www.mitre.org
[9] solar: http://www.inhabitat.com/2009/09/03/first-ever-apple-licensed-ipod-solar-charger-case-unveiled/
[10] Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/1589776/isis-airborne-radar-defense-surveillance-unmanned-airship-blimp
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