NASA researchers sponsored by Dryden’s Small Business Innovation Research program introduced airborne science networking capabilities, such as telepresence and over-the-horizon, on an aircraft bearing a payload of instrumentation with a combined gross weight of less than three pounds.
The battery-powered NightHawk micro air vehicle, built by Applied Research Associates Inc. of Randolph, Vt., communicated with ground systems via the Iridium Satellite constellation. Simultaneously, a mission monitor delivered situational-awareness information from the satellites as computer displays that ground personnel could then access.