Module 5.4 - UNSY 501

Space exploration is an enterprise that was accomplished by manned missions during the beginning stages of its development.  But as technology has advanced over the decades, more and more unmanned systems have been implemented in space exploration missions. There have consistently been debates on whether manned or unmanned missions provide a greater advantage in the completion of missions in different areas of space exploration. Once the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shuttle program was retired and the Constellation program was cancelled in 2010, the U.S. manned space program was essentially shutdown (Millis, 2010).  These events left the International Space Station (ISS) as the only avenue for the continuation of manned space flight for the U.S. via astronaut launches from Russia.  But as the manned missions to space have dwindled, the unmanned missions have increased in number and spectrum.  In this discussion, I will review an article that compares the respective benefits and disadvantages of both manned and unmanned explorations of space.

The article I reviewed compared manned and unmanned missions for space exploration and found four distinct disadvantages for manned spaceflight: safety concerns, health risks, time frame, and costs (Chavis 2015).  The most obvious disadvantage of manned space exploration is the safety risk placed upon the astronauts assigned to the mission.  Any deaths or injuries to astronauts are regarded as major mission failures by both government and public agencies involved in space (Chavis 2015).  In the history of manned space flight, five percent of all who have attempted to fly in space have died for a total of 22 people (Chavis 2015).  When you compare these safety risks to an unmanned mission, there is no possibility of the loss of life which is a major advantage for unmanned exploration.  The second advantage of unmanned missions is similar to the first being health risks to the astronauts.  Even when manned launches and missions are completed successfully, the astronauts involved in the missions can experience a multitude of health issues over the course of the mission.  The most common health issues that can result from extended time in space are immune deficiency, loss of bone density, muscle atrophy, and radiation poisoning (Chavis 2015).  As with the first advantage, there is no possibility of these issues with an unmanned mission as there is no one present to experience the negative effects. 

The first two advantages of unmanned missions address the lack of a human presence, the other two advantages are in regards to the logistical portion of the mission.  The first logistical advantage of an unmanned mission is the time frame for the mission, both leading up to and during the mission (Chavis 2015).  When a space exploration mission has the manned component, there is a large amount of training that is required for members of the mission team that can take months to years in order to accomplish (Chavis 2015).  Unmanned systems are designed to accomplish their mission as soon as they are constructed even though it can take years to build these systems (Chavis 2015).  The bigger advantage when it comes to time frame for unmanned missions is the actual length of time available for mission accomplishment.  Due to the fact that astronauts can experience negative effects from extended periods of time in space, the mission timeframe is much shorter than that of unmanned space missions (Chavis 2015).  The final advantage addressed is that the cost of manned space missions is higher than that of unmanned missions (Chavis 2015).  Some unmanned mission systems may be more expensive overall than manned missions, but the manned missions only last for weeks or months and unmanned missions last years (Chavis 2015). 

For the most part, I agree with the article that unmanned systems provide many advantages over manned space exploration.  However, I do think that manned exploration missions allow for far more depth of research and discovery.  I think that unmanned systems are better suited for long term missions that have a broad scope in their goals.  Based on the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, using manned and unmanned missions in complement to one another would result in the best overall results for space exploration.      

References

Chavis, J.C.  (2015). Disadvantages to Manned Missions to Space.  Brighthub.  Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/science/space/articles/72499.aspx

Millis, J.P.  (2010). The Future of Manned Space Flight.  About Education.  Retrieved from http://space.about.com/od/spacebasics/a/Future-of-Manned-Space-Flight.htm

Module 4.3 - UNSY 501 

As a consultant for Acme Airborne Analysis Group assessing the impacts of We Sell Anything real estate using quad rotor unmanned aerial system (UAS) for a marketing campaign of local lakefront property, I must consider the legal, ethical, and technical challenges associated with the operation. The major consideration for the application of UAS in this capacity will be the legal aspect. The majority of ethical issues that are raised with UAS are in reference to military and law enforcement implementations. The technical considerations are also not a large issue with the current capabilities and continual development of UAS technology. That leaves the only serious considerations for implementation as the legal feasibility. For information on the legal possibilities of using UAS to obtain high resolution images of real estate properties, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the legal authority.

There is one main question to consider in respect to the legal issues, can a private company use a UAS for the purposes of real estate marketing? While there are not any specific regulations in regards to the use a UAS in this capacity, the current FAA regulations and decisions can provide us with more than enough information to determine the legality of We Sell Anything using UAS. The regulations on UAS use in U.S. airspace are still in flux and not well defined, but in February 2015 the FAA proposed regulations for UAS that do not meet the criteria for Section 336 of Public Law 112-95 that would allow routine use of UAS and accommodate future innovations (FAA 2015). However, the proposal has not yet been approved which leaves UAS without any specific regulations in regards to commercial usage. However, commercial entities can petition for exemption under Section 333 to be allow to use UAS in non-recreational capacities prior to the approval of the FAA proposal (FAA 2015). Under Section 333, the Secretary of Transportation can determine whether airworthiness requirements are necessary for certain low-risk situations (FAA 2015). In relative terms, the use of UAS to obtain high resolution images of lakefront property should qualify as low risk. Also, just last week the FAA approved Measure to use a fleet of over 300 small UAS for the purposes of aerial data acquisition (Lufkin 2015). I believe real estate images would also qualify as aerial data acquisition, and We Sell Anything would not likely need nearly 300 UAS to fulfill their needs.

With looking at all of the legal, ethical, and technical considerations, I think it is completely feasible for We Sell Anything to use UAS in their real estate marketing campaign of local lakefront property. We Sell Anything should send a petition for exemption under Section 333 to the FAA and I believe that the FAA would approve the exemption. They would then be able to purchase one or more of any number or quad rotor UAS models to accomplish the collection of high definition imagery of their lakefront properties.

References

Federal Aviation Administration. (2015). Fact Sheet – Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Retrieved from http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=18297

Lufkin, B. (2015). The FAA is Allowing a Company to Fly a Massive Fleet of 300 Drones. Gizmodo. Retrieved from http://gizmodo.com/the-faa-is-allowing-a-company-to-fly-a-massive-fleet-of-1728207486

Module 3.4 - UNSY 501

There are many potential uses for unmanned maritime systems (UMS) in the military and civilian sectors currently and there will be even more uses in the future as the technology progresses. An area where UMS are already being implemented and could see an expanded role in the future is in regard to search and salvage. When it comes to search and salvage operations, they can be broken down into two categories: emergency or disaster search and salvage and historical search and salvage, both of which have made use of UMS. An example of UMS being used in an emergency search and salvage scenario is the U.S. Navy sending the Bluefin-21 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) in as a part of the search effort for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Australia last year (LaGrone 2014). However, the focus of this discussion is on the use of UMS in historical search and salvage as in the case of Vulcan Inc.’s discovery of the remains of a Japanese battleship from World War II in the Philippines (Bray 2015).

On March 2, 2015 the Bluefin-12D operated by a research team led by Paul Allen discovered the location of the Japanese WWII battleship, the Musashi (Bray 2015). The Musashi, sunk on October 24, 1944 during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, was one of the largest and most technologically advanced battleships of its time (Bray 2015; Ronan 2015). The battleship carried nine 18-inch guns, the largest ever mounted on a warship, and was outfitted with 18-inch armor plating and was estimated to have taken 19 torpedoes and 17 bombs before finally sinking (Ronan 2015). When fully loaded, the Musashi weighed in at 73,000 tons, which is 15,000 tons more than the most famous U.S. WWII battleship, the U.S.S. Missouri (Ronan 2015). The research team is working with the Japanese and Philippine governments to ensure the site is treated as a military cemetery, as approximately half of the 2,400 man crew went down with the Musashi (Bray 2015).

Even during WWII, ships and airplanes were equipped with excellent navigational equipment; however, the locations of major sunken warships were not accurately recorded (Bray 2015). The Battle of Leyte Gulf took place near the Philippine island of Luzon, but that left a large area for the Bluefin to search in order to find the wreckage (Bray 2015). The Bluefin-12D can dive down to depths just shy of 5,000 feet and has an endurance of 30 hours with a normal payload with a speed between 3 and 5 knots (Bluefin 2015). The combination of the large search area and the modest speed of the Bluefin made it necessary for the research team to narrow down possible search areas using historical data and sonar surveys of the sea floor (Bray 2015).

One of the difficulties of using UMS is that it is difficult to transmit to the vehicle once it has submerged to begin accomplishing its mission. This difficulty is no different with the Bluefin-12D, which is why the navigation is accomplish via an Internal Navigation System (INS) (Bluefin 2015). The research team entered the area of interest into the INS prior to deploying the Bluefin in order to accomplish the search. The Bluefin traveled in a “lawn mower” pattern across the designated search area using sonar to generate a map of the sea floor (Bray 2015). Once the Bluefin surfaced from its search of the area, the research team would remove the internal memory cache and download the information to study the findings (Bray 2015). The Bluefin identified the Musashi wreckage location for the research team on only the third dive nearly 3,300 feet below the surface (Ronan 2015).

The Bluefin-12D is only one of five UMS made by Bluefin Robotics, but it has proven the usefulness of UMS in the area of search and salvage operations, whether for emergency or historical purposes. With improvements in travel speed, data relay, and endurance, UMS will be able to cover larger search areas more quickly resulting in faster and more frequent findings. There will be many new uses for UMS in the future and I think that search and salvage field in which UMS will have a strong impact.

References

Bray, H. (2015). Quincy undersea robot pinpoints sunken warship. Boston Globe. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/03/12/bluefin-robot-helps-find-sunken-japanese-warship/DXeVgvQYBq15pQnK4M3HkO/story.html

LaGrone, S. (2014). U.S. Navy Sends Underwater Sonar Robot in Search for Missing Malaysian Airliner. USNI News. Retrieved from http://news.usni.org/2014/03/24/u-s-navy-sends-underwater-sonar-robot-search-missing-malaysian-airliner

Ronan, P. (2015). Quincy-made robot leads researchers to wreck of long-lost Japanese battleship. The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved from http://www.patriotledger.com/article/20150312/News/150318472

Bluefin Robotics Corporation. (2015). Bluefin-12D. Summary and Specifications. Retrieved from http://www.bluefinrobotics.com/products/bluefin-12d/