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We'll see how well it works on a featureless ice sheet....
by cozzyd 3y ago
We'll see how well it works on a featureless ice sheet....
- mattmaroon 3y agoUnless your drone somehow makes it to Antarctica that would be hard to imagine happening, and even if it did, it could just continue on in one direction until it sees a feature again. Or fly higher. I’ve driven across the Great Lakes when frozen but even from the ground there are landmarks you can see.
- npsomaratna 3y agoQuestion: how do you know it's safe to drive over them? Wouldn't there be areas of thin ice through which the vehicle might sink?
- mattmaroon 3y agoThe coast guard actually samples the ice and marks lanes. There are islands that people live on up there and when it freezes enough you can drive back to the mainland. There were lots of people who just did their own thing but yes, that would otherwise be a risk without testing and I’m sure too cautious to be one of them. Now though I don’t think it gets cold enough where I was at (Lake Erie near the Ohio/Michigan border) to freeze enough in the winters anymore. It’s been a solid 20 years since I knew people who drove on it so I’m not sure it’s still a thing. NYT actually wrote an article about how the lack of freezing is killing a brisk (pun intended) winter business there and mentions it. I used to have family who lived on the next island north. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/us/put-in-bay-ohio-ice.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/05/us/put-in-bay-ohio-ice.ht...
- neodypsis 3y agoIsn't most of Antartica restricted air space?
- krisoft 3y agoNo. Why would it be? It is just not practical for commercial flights to overfly it, but it is not restricted otherwise.
- cozzyd 3y agoAt research stations you are likely close to skiway and would be unlikely to get permission if you asked, I think. Not sure what official NSF policy is, since I didn't have a drone the times I've been in Antarctica, but I was able to get permission to fly my drone near Summit Station Greenland (by asking the camp manager).
- cozzyd 3y agoWell, I've flown my (crappy) drone over the Greenland ice sheet. There are features in the ice sheet but they change regularly (once you're at an altitude high enough so there are no melt lakes). Nunatak and such aren't all that common away from the coasts. Antarctica would be worse on the plateau away from the transantarctic. (There are other practical problems like how poorly drones do in the climate).
- AnarchismIsCool 3y agoPeople usually don't care about flying drones over areas where there is nothing to look at.