SubNanoDreamer
May 23, 2007, 06:03 PM
Alright - I'm not the credulous type (far be it from me to take anything posted on a Whitley Streiber site without a grain of salt!)
- but I do read a few 'fringe science' type websites from time to time and stumbled across this:
"Weird aerial object haunts California"
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7886/stranger11wy6.jpg
...basically supposed to be pics of some bizarre new electrostatic-propulsion craft that's been photographed a few times in different places. Just thought I'd share this with you UAV enthusiasts and see what your take is on this thing.
Here's what an anonymous engineer was alleged to have written about it (from the 2nd link at the bottom of this post):
"May 16, 2007 Albuquerque, NM -
"I worked in communications for many years, and finished up a career at Honeywell in hardware design. I also worked with the Navy for a number of years (enlisted), and saw many things in the area of communications. Your ring-drone posted to the site was interesting on a few counts.
Beyond aerodynamics (which I don't know much about other than to say this is a strange design and appears that there is a front to this - the long probe that is sectional, 3 pieces is my guess), I'll throw in my .02 as follows. Please note my comments are limited to what I see primarily about the antenna and the element array arrangement.
The circular design of the body with the antenna bent in an almost 'candle-like' fashion, combined with the 360 degree array, permit for a possible phased array with a directional sensing ability. This is due to the signal being able to strike the antenna array from one direction and then back scattering across what would be the inside of the ring. From this, a differential can be made and direction calculated based in part on signal strength among other things. It should be noted, too, that the angle of the bend on each element permits a nearly vertical aperture perspective, enabling higher flying craft (or lower flying, as the case may be) to be able to communicate with this ring-drone; a sort of look-down-look-up communicating ability with no loss of sight. The bend also enables a variety of frequencies to be 'sniffed'; they are not uniform in the sense of being a straight rod as we see commonly as in a television antenna. This is bent and bent for good reason. Without knowing the diameter of the ring I can't guess accurately what the frequency range would be that this ring-drone would be designed to transceive. If I got it right, there are 14 elements, evenly spaced about the ring body, each being approximately 25.7 degrees apart. Length, spacing, forward element, rear element, all come into play to figuring out the detail and without some sense of dimension I'd hesitate to offer anything. Once this is known, the operating frequency range can be more accurately known. No doubt it is millimeter.
The body (ring-like) makes sense; lightweight, low drag, combined with enabling a circular, millimeter wave transceiver to be placed within the ring. The circle itself is the same principle applied to supercomputing as its half the distance as compared to a buss type architecture.
I'd also say that having worked on spacecraft for a number of years, the trick of keeping unintended interference down to an acceptable level is to place it further away from the noise source. So on our spacecraft - say Voyager, for example, which is well known and has been seen many times, it has extended arms for this function. One arm is for the nuclear power device; we don't want that next to the scientific instruments so they are kept at opposite ends or hidden behind the body or shielded as design permits. In this ring-drone, my guess would be the same thing is being applied; you see three sections of the extended 'front-arm,' as I called it, each with rod-like pins separating the section. Each section appears to have one or more sensors, so the same principle of Voyager may be being applied here. It would be quite easy to run fiber optic down the rods separating the sections. The long arm itself probably houses the navigational aid would also be my guess as it would be the 'bow-wave' sensor for this ring-drone. So to be clear, the power source itself is probably incorporated into the ring body itself, with the sensors out- board, the most sensitive being the furthest from the ring body.
Does it rotate? How large is it (dimension)? It would be interesting to know rotational rate, as that too, combined with the length of the arms (or blades as they might be), would also be instrumental in determining speed."
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1252&category=Environment
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1248&category=Environment
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=6225
- but I do read a few 'fringe science' type websites from time to time and stumbled across this:
"Weird aerial object haunts California"
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/7886/stranger11wy6.jpg
...basically supposed to be pics of some bizarre new electrostatic-propulsion craft that's been photographed a few times in different places. Just thought I'd share this with you UAV enthusiasts and see what your take is on this thing.
Here's what an anonymous engineer was alleged to have written about it (from the 2nd link at the bottom of this post):
"May 16, 2007 Albuquerque, NM -
"I worked in communications for many years, and finished up a career at Honeywell in hardware design. I also worked with the Navy for a number of years (enlisted), and saw many things in the area of communications. Your ring-drone posted to the site was interesting on a few counts.
Beyond aerodynamics (which I don't know much about other than to say this is a strange design and appears that there is a front to this - the long probe that is sectional, 3 pieces is my guess), I'll throw in my .02 as follows. Please note my comments are limited to what I see primarily about the antenna and the element array arrangement.
The circular design of the body with the antenna bent in an almost 'candle-like' fashion, combined with the 360 degree array, permit for a possible phased array with a directional sensing ability. This is due to the signal being able to strike the antenna array from one direction and then back scattering across what would be the inside of the ring. From this, a differential can be made and direction calculated based in part on signal strength among other things. It should be noted, too, that the angle of the bend on each element permits a nearly vertical aperture perspective, enabling higher flying craft (or lower flying, as the case may be) to be able to communicate with this ring-drone; a sort of look-down-look-up communicating ability with no loss of sight. The bend also enables a variety of frequencies to be 'sniffed'; they are not uniform in the sense of being a straight rod as we see commonly as in a television antenna. This is bent and bent for good reason. Without knowing the diameter of the ring I can't guess accurately what the frequency range would be that this ring-drone would be designed to transceive. If I got it right, there are 14 elements, evenly spaced about the ring body, each being approximately 25.7 degrees apart. Length, spacing, forward element, rear element, all come into play to figuring out the detail and without some sense of dimension I'd hesitate to offer anything. Once this is known, the operating frequency range can be more accurately known. No doubt it is millimeter.
The body (ring-like) makes sense; lightweight, low drag, combined with enabling a circular, millimeter wave transceiver to be placed within the ring. The circle itself is the same principle applied to supercomputing as its half the distance as compared to a buss type architecture.
I'd also say that having worked on spacecraft for a number of years, the trick of keeping unintended interference down to an acceptable level is to place it further away from the noise source. So on our spacecraft - say Voyager, for example, which is well known and has been seen many times, it has extended arms for this function. One arm is for the nuclear power device; we don't want that next to the scientific instruments so they are kept at opposite ends or hidden behind the body or shielded as design permits. In this ring-drone, my guess would be the same thing is being applied; you see three sections of the extended 'front-arm,' as I called it, each with rod-like pins separating the section. Each section appears to have one or more sensors, so the same principle of Voyager may be being applied here. It would be quite easy to run fiber optic down the rods separating the sections. The long arm itself probably houses the navigational aid would also be my guess as it would be the 'bow-wave' sensor for this ring-drone. So to be clear, the power source itself is probably incorporated into the ring body itself, with the sensors out- board, the most sensitive being the furthest from the ring body.
Does it rotate? How large is it (dimension)? It would be interesting to know rotational rate, as that too, combined with the length of the arms (or blades as they might be), would also be instrumental in determining speed."
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1252&category=Environment
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1248&category=Environment
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=6225