TYB's
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
February 9, 2025
Milky Way over the Australian Pinnacles
What strange world is this? Earth. In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles, unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia. Made of ancient sea shells (limestone), how these human-sized picturesque spires formed remains unknown. In the background, just past the end of the central Pinnacle, is a bright crescent Moon. The eerie glow around the Moon is mostly zodiacal light, sunlight reflected by dust grains orbiting between the planets in the Solar System. Arching across the top is the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy. Many famous stars and nebulas are also visible in the background night sky. The featured 29-panel panorama was taken and composed in 2015 September after detailed planning that involved the Moon, the rock spires, and their corresponding shadows. Even so, the strong zodiacal light was a pleasant surprise.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
The Reason Astronauts Eat Steak And Eggs Before They Go To Space
FEB. 8, 2025 7:05 PM EST
They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but you're probably sticking with a fairly ordinary routine after you eat — heading to work, cleaning the house, or spending time with friends. But what if you were going to space?
You certainly wouldn't want to skip a big steak and eggs breakfast, but it's not totally because of the high protein content. Rather, astronauts eat this breakfast as a tradition before rocketing outside the atmosphere because of the astronaut Alan Shepard.
Alan Shepard was the first American to enter space; he claimed the title back in 1961 on the Freedom 7 spacecraft. Although Shepard didn't fully orbit the earth, he did set a record and leave a legacy — and his space-travel day started with steak and eggs.
Beatrice Finkelstein of the Aerospace Medical Laboratory chose the dish for Shepard, reasoning that the dish is high in protein but low in fiber, reducing the risk of the astronaut needing to use the bathroom during his 15-minute journey into space.
Now, many years later, it's still tradition for astronauts to enjoy this classic breakfast prior to takeoff.
Alan Shepard started a trend of eating steak and eggs before space travel
Alan Shepard might have been the first American to reach outer space — and the first one to eat steak and eggs before doing so — but other well-known space travelers took a page from his book.
In 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins made history once more when they traveled to the moon, and they also ate steak and eggs before the launch.
They not only ate it as tribute to Shepard, but also because of its low dietary fiber and high protein.
Fifty-four years later, Aldrin posted on X that he was celebrating the mission's anniversary with, you guessed it, a steak and eggs breakfast.
Steak and eggs' history as a breakfast staple in the United States dates back to World War II, when soldiers stationed in Australia began eating the dish regularly.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that this became a meal that soldiers ate before deploying on a mission, like a beach landing. Of course, this hearty breakfast is far from the meals astronauts eat on moon missions.
During preparation for the first NASA missions, the scientists weren't even sure that a human being could swallow in zero-gravity.
After they learned that it was possible, early space travel saw plenty of freeze-dried foods along with powder for beverages, which astronauts could mix into water.
These days, more ordinary foods can be consumed in space, too, including cookies, granola bars, and nuts, but major meals still have to undergo either a freeze-drying process or a thermostabilizing process (exposing food to high heat) in order to mitigate bacterial growth. No, the food isn't quite as good as steak and eggs, but it has certainly improved since Shepard took that first trip.
https://www.chowhound.com/1776978/why-astronauts-eat-steak-and-eggs-space/
Lasers and Space-Time-Separated Atomic Clocks Reveal New Secrets About Dark Matter
Feb 8, 2025
Using lasers and space-time-separated atomic clocks, researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ) have yielded previously undiscovered results about the nature of dark matter, the enigmatic substance believed to comprise most of the matter in the cosmos.
Previous efforts have occasionally detected the effects of this mysterious nonluminous material, although the latest effort successfully detected forms of dark matter through their behavior as waves, offering scientists a new approach in the search for the substance’s enigmatic nature.
According to the generally accepted Lambda-CDM model of cosmology, the universe is 5% ordinary matter, 26.8% dark matter, and 68.2% an equally enigmatic and elusive form of energy known as “dark energy.”
If correct, this means that close to 95% of the universe’s mass-energy content is comprised of nonluminous material that cannot be directly observed by astronomers.
Past studies by The University of Hong Kong have proposed dark matter was made up of ultralight particles known as axions instead of the more commonly hypothesized weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS).
A number of innovative ideas have been proposed by astronomers to aid in searching for dark matter, which include actively searching for axions around the magnetic fields of stars, leveraging the light from pulsars, or even looking for clues to dark matter in billion-year-old geological formations.
Unfortunately, while such past research has offered tantalizing clues, the authors of this latest study note that none have been able to measure the elusive substance directly.
“Despite many theories and experiments, scientists are yet to find dark matter, which we think of as the ‘glue’ of the galaxy holding everything together,” explained UQ PhD student Ashlee Caddell, who co-led a new study with Germany’s metrology institute Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), in a statement.
Caddell added her team approached the problem in a way that had not been tried before.
Specifically, rather than employing typical tests looking for the gravitational effects of dark matter, the researcher says this new effort focused on data “from a network of ultra-stable lasers connected by fiber optic cables, as well as from two atomic clocks aboard GPS satellites.”
Because dark matter is known to behave like a wave due to its extremely low mass, the team employed a series of space/time-separated atomic clocks and lasers.
If they detected something that looked like a disparity in the two clocks, that finding would hint at the presence of a new form of dark matter.
“Dark matter, in this case, acts like a wave because its mass is very, very low,” Caddell explained.
“We use the (space/time) separated (atomic) clocks to try to measure changes in the wave, which would look like clocks displaying different times or ticking at different rates.”
“This effect gets stronger if the clocks are further apart,” Caddell added, highlighting the benefit of the two satellite-based clocks.
After several tests, the team analyzed the data they collected to determine whether the effects of dark matter were present. According to Caddell, the team’s innovative search method using lasers and space/time-separated atomic clocks was successful.
“By comparing precision measurements across vast distances, we identified the subtle effects of oscillating dark matter fields that would otherwise cancel themselves out in conventional setups,” the scientists explained.
The study’s co-author, UQ physicist Dr. Benjamin Roberts, noted the significance of the findings compared to previous efforts due to their ability to detect the effects of dark matter on all atoms.
The researcher also highlighted the benefits of the unprecedented findings to other researchers in the field who are looking for innovative new methods to further unravel the mysterious nature of dark matter.
“Excitingly, we were able to search for signals from dark matter models that interact universally with all atoms, something that has eluded traditional experiments,” said Roberts.
“Scientists will now be able to investigate a broader range of dark matter scenarios and perhaps answer some fundamental questions about the fabric of the universe.”
“This work also highlights the power of international collaboration and cutting-edge technology, using PTB’s state-of-the-art atomic clocks and UQ’s expertise in combining precision measurements and fundamental physics,” Roberts concluded.
https://thedebrief.org/lasers-and-space-time-separated-atomic-clocks-reveal-new-secrets-about-dark-matter/
https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.031001
https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2025/02/new-technique-detect-dark-matter-using-atomic-clocks-and-lasers
SpaceX Silently Loses Another Rocket To Space – FAA Rules Out Investigation
Feb 8, 2025 at 09:12 am EST
SpaceX might have lost another second stage Falcon 9 rocket launched at the start of this month shows data from the satellite tracking website Celes Track.
The Falcon 9 rocket launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with SpaceX's 22 Starlink satellites.
Once the Falcon 9's second stage deploys its satellites, it fires up its Merlin vacuum engine to reduce its speed for atmospheric reentry.
However, sources claim and satellite tracking data shows that the rocket missed its reentry target making it the third time in a year that the second stage has demonstrated anomalous behavior.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 Second Stage Still In Orbit Shows Satellite Tracking Data
SpaceX's first Falcon 9 Block 5 second-stage failure occurred in July last year when the rocket's engine failed to fire in space before deploying its payload of Starlink satellites.
SpaceX later explained that a liquid oxygen leak on the rocket led to its disintegration, and since it could not raise the altitude of the satellites, the spacecraft were also lost.
The second-stage anomaly was followed by a first-stage accident a couple of months later.
The Falcon 9 booster, which flew another batch of Starlink satellites, made a hard landing on SpaceX's drone ship and tipped over.
This marked a rare accident, the first landing failure in more than three years. The accident ended SpaceX's streak of a record-setting 267 successful landings.
After the rare booster landing failure, another Falcon 9 second stage demonstrated off-nominal behavior in September.
This stage flew NASA's Crew-9 mission to space, and SpaceX shared that while it did enter the Earth's atmosphere and landed in the ocean, the rocket missed its designated landing spot.
As a result, the firm suspended rocket launches while investigating the anomaly.
The fourth Falcon 9 anomaly in less than a year might have occurred after a Starlink mission on February 1st. Data from CelesTrack shows that the second stage rocket from this mission is still in orbit.
This is despite the fact that the rocket was slated to land in the Pacific Ocean according to NOTAMs issued for the launch.
Unlike its previous missions, SpaceX is yet to share additional details about the latest potential Falcon 9 second-stage anomaly.
It is likely that the rocket's engine did not fire to reduce its speed for an atmospheric entry.
Sources speaking to ArsTechnica shared that SpaceX delayed two Falcon 9 launches to investigate the problem.
When the publication contacted the FAA, the agency told it that it would not require an investigation this time since all activities occurred within the scope of SpaceX's license.
Since the Starlink launch on February 1st, SpaceX has launched two missions without error.
The first mission was another batch of Starlink spacecraft, while the other launched Earth observation satellites.
SpaceX is also aiming to land a Falcon 9 rocket booster for the first time in the Bahamas on Monday to enable the rocket to "launch to new orbital trajectories."
https://wccftech.com/spacex-silently-loses-another-rocket-to-space-faa-rules-out-investigation/
https://www.space.com/the-universe/earth/space-weather-scales-are-outdated-and-confusing-heres-what-noaa-scientists-are-doing-about-it
Space weather scales are outdated and confusing. Here's what NOAA scientists are doing about it
Feb 9, 2025
Scientists continue to advance the process of updating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Scales, with the next steps expected to be taken as early as this year.
Just like there's a classification system for hurricanes and tornadoes, space weather storms that develop and pose threats to Earth have their own classification system.
But these storms are a little more complex than terrestrial weather, and they must be categorized into three different types of events: geomagnetic storms, solar radiation storms and radio blackouts.
These three primary areas of focus highlight the types of impacts a solar flare can have on our environment, with the scales also providing information on the likelihood of a certain level occurring and the intensity of each category, which is rated on a scale of 1 to 5.
The scales were designed in 1999 as space weather started becoming a more popular area of research.
But with historic events, including the Halloween solar storm in October 2003 and the Gannon event in May 2024, bringing new information to light, leaders at NOAA and the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) determined that the information in the scales had become outdated and confusing for the public.
"This is space weather, and it's something that's challenging to many people.
When you start talking about geomagnetic storms, X-rays, protons and energetic particles, people just don't really understand it," Bill Murtagh, program coordinator for the SWPC, told Space.com in an interview here at the American Meteorological Society's (AMS) annual meeting.
"We have to find a balance to what's presented in the scales that benefits our primary customers, which are the operators of critical infrastructure — such as power grids, satellites and the airlines — but also for the general public."
In 2024, the SWPC collaborated with the National Weather Service and the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) to ask members of the public and the different types of stakeholders that rely on space weather conditions and forecast data to provide feedback on the current scales.
Nearly 500 people from almost 200 different engagements domestically and internationally participated, and the findings were shared at the AMS' annual meeting in January.
"STPI will deliver a report to NOAA that will consist of different Space Weather Scales revision options for NOAA to consider," Daniel Pechkis, a research staff member at STPI, told Space.com in an email.
"Over the next year, STPI will work with NOAA to evaluate the various options, helping them determine the feasibility and timeline needed for possible implementation.
Throughout this process, STPI will continue to work with the space weather community and users of space weather information to inform SWPC's scales revision effort, delivering a suggested implementation plan near the end of the year."
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Scientists at the SWPC said they are now in phase two of the process, which will entail taking the feedback and the report produced by STPI to make important decisions on what changes need to be implemented sooner than others.
This will also include selecting the options that will best communicate the impacts of space weather and most benefit modern-day end users and the public.
"We're at solar maximum; to find time to make some of these big changes is going to require time and more resources, so we have to address what it will take," Murtagh said.
"Some of these things we want to take a decade to do, big changes, but there's a lot of things we can do over the next year or two that can make a difference.
We need to focus on what we can do in the near term that's really going to help the end users." The third phase is going to be the "big one," Murtagh added.
That will involve "making it happen, implementing change, defining and changing the products, and [creating] a subscription service to get to the customers by notifying everybody these changes are coming.
And so that's going to be a lot of time and effort, but obviously it's critical to do," he said.
Murtagh played an important role in the creation of the original space weather scales, having taken part in the discussions at the SWPC in 1997 and 1998.
He said some of the common themes of changes that need to be addressed include removing the description terms of each category on the scales, which range from "minor" at Level 1 to "extreme" at Level 5.
"For example, on the geomagnetic storm scale, the G5 "extreme" description is going to mean one thing to one person and something totally different to others," Murtagh explained.
"It depends on their system, the sophistication of the technology they're using, and the latitude and location to where they're at.
"Another big piece of the feedback is differentiating between a G5 and a G5+ storm," Murtagh added.
For example, the Gannon event was a G5, but it was nothing like the extraordinary 1859 Carrington Event.
A lot of people said you need to add a level to the scales, while others proposed revision of the scales, he said.
"There's a different type of scale that would eliminate that concern of the saturation at the high end of the scale," Murtagh said.
"That's a big one and would take some time to create, but we feel like we can make some progress here in the next couple of years."
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World's fastest supercomputer 'El Capitan' goes online — it will be used to secure the US nuclear stockpile and in other classified research
February 9, 2025
The fastest supercomputer in the world has officially launched at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LNNL) in California.
The supercomputer, called "El Capitan," cost $600 million to build and will handle various sensitive and classified tasks including securing the U.S. stockpile of nuclear weapons in the absence of underground testing, according to LNNL representatives. This was prohibited in 1992.
Research will primarily be focused on national security, including material discovery, high-energy-density physics, nuclear data and weapon design, as well as other classified tasks.
Construction on the machine began in May 2023, and it came online in November 2024, before being officially dedicated on Jan. 9.
El Capitan became the world's fastest computer when it became fully operational last year with a score of 1.742 exaFLOPS in the High-Performance Linpack (HPL) benchmark.
This is a test used to judge supercomputing speeds all over the world. This makes El Capitan only the third computer ever to reach exascale computing speeds. It has a peak performance of 2.746 exaFLOPS.
Performance is measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS), where one floating-point operation is a mathematical calculation.
Although like-for-like comparisons are tricky, the best laptops usually deliver several hundred gigaFLOPS of power — that’s 1 trillion (10^9) FLOPS. An exaFLOP is 1 quintillion (10^18) FLOPS.
The next fastest supercomputer in the world is currently the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Illinois.
That supercomputer has achieved a standard performance of 1.353 exaFLOPS with a peak of 2.056 exaFLOPS.
El Capitan is powered by just over 11 million processing and graphics cores packed into 44,544 AMD MI300A accelerated processing units — chips that combine AMD EPCY Genoa CPUs, AMD CDNA3 graphics cards and computing memory — according to Next Platform.
Each uses 128 gigabytes of high-bandwidth memory — a special type of computing memory that achieves high speeds while consuming less power — shared across central processing unit and graphics processing unit chiplets.
El Capitan was commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy's CORAL-2 program to replace the Sierra supercomputer, deployed in 2018.
This supercomputer is still in use and was the 14th most powerful supercomputer in the latest Top500 rankings.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/tech/worlds-fastest-supercomputer-el-capitan-goes-online-it-will-be-used-to-secure-the-us-nuclear-stockpile-and-in-other-classified-research
Police Investigate Drone Incursions at German Military Base
February 9, 2025
German police are investigating six cases of drones flying over an air base in the north of the country where Ukrainian forces are trained, a military spokesman told AFP on Sunday.
A series of drone sightings over military and industrial sites in Germany in recent months has sparked alarm and the government said last month that military regulations will be changed to let troops shoot down suspicious unmanned aerial vehicles.
From January 9 to 29 six incidents involving suspicious drones flying over the Schwesing air base near the Danish border were recorded, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported Saturday.
A military spokesman said the cases had been reported to Schleswig-Holstein state police but did not immediately make a direct link to espionage.
The Schwesing base is used for training forces using anti-air missiles and Ukrainian troops fighting Russia have been instructed there. Germany is a key military supplier for Ukraine.
According to Suddeutsche Zeitung, Ukrainian forces have been trained on using the US-made Patriot missile interceptors.
The spokesman acknowledged that reports of drones and “alleged espionage attempts” have increased in recent months.
But he indicated that the military was cautious about the motive for the incidents as drones could be bought in stores and “individuals also use drones over military buildings without thinking.”
Germany, like other states in the region, suspects that Russia has launched undercover action against western countries as it pursues its invasion of Ukraine.
Several telecoms cables have been cut in the Baltic Sea in recent months and experts and politicians have blamed Russia. Moscow has denied any role in the cases.
https://thedefensepost.com/2025/02/09/police-drone-german-military-base/
SP uses drone to destroy poppy plantation in Seraikela-Kharsawan, India
9 February 2025
Seraikela-Kharsawan SP Mukesh Lunayet led an operation on Saturday to destroy poppy cultivation spread across 19 acres of land in the district, using a drone for precise identification.
The operation was carried out in Kuchai, Dalbhanga, and Ichagarh areas, resulting in the arrest of three individuals.
Acting on a tip-off, a special police team, led by SP Lunayet, used drone cameras to locate poppy plantations accurately before launching the raid.
The team first targeted Jorasarjom village in Kuchai, where poppy crops covering three acres were destroyed. One person was arrested during the operation.
Next, the team moved to Siadhih village under Dalbhanga Thana Outpost, where they cleared poppy cultivation spread over 10 acres. Two individuals were arrested from this location.
Finally, in Salukdhih village, Ichagarh, the team destroyed poppy crops grown on one acre of land.
During these operations, most locals cooperated with the police. Notably, while the police were clearing plantations in Siadhih village, some residents took it upon themselves to destroy poppy crops covering an additional five acres.
Many villagers are increasingly turning to illegal poppy cultivation instead of traditional paddy farming, as poppy offers significantly higher financial returns.
Poppy flowers are processed to produce opium. Additionally, a popular food item, postu, is made as a byproduct of opium processing.
Since taking charge, SP Lunayet has overseen the destruction of poppy plantations spread over 498 acres and the arrest of around a dozen individuals involved in illegal cultivation.
https://thejharkhandstory.co.in/sp-uses-drone-to-destroy-poppy-plantation-in-seraikela-kharsawan/
https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2025/02/09/federal-regulators-struggle-to-keep-up-with-emerging-drone-technology/78201617007/
More farms are turning to drones, but proposed ban, backlog of pilot applications is challenging the industry
5:01 a.m. CT Feb 9, 2025
As the agricultural drone industry takes off, federal regulators struggle to keep up
More farms are turning to drones to spray chemicals, but proposed bans and backlog of pilot applications is challenging the growing industry.
Dust swirled as the 83-pound drone launched from a clearing near a Nebraska cornfield. With its four propellers humming, Paige Browning used a handheld controller to move the drone across the field, spraying a mist of fungicide on the crops below.
“You think in your head it’s going to be fun — cool job, right?” said Browning, a Nebraska rancher who started flying agricultural drones two years ago with her father and uncle. “But when you get into the nitty gritty and actually doing it, it’s a very dirty job.”
Browning is one of around 1,000 pilots authorized to fly agricultural drones in the U.S., according to a spokesperson with the Federal Aviation Administration. Around 85% of those pilots were approved last year.
Agricultural drones can cost between $30,000 and $50,000 but are still cheaper than traditional crop-dusting airplanes.
The drones can also spread chemicals and seeds more efficiently by getting closer to the ground, especially when dealing with hilly terrain, telephone poles and oddly shaped fields.
However, the agricultural drone industry is much more complex than traditional “backyard” drones flown by hobbyists. With a width sometimes exceeding 35 feet, the drones can cause significant damage in a crash.
Flight patterns must also be carefully monitored as the chemicals they spread can be toxic to farmworkers on the ground.
Federal regulators are struggling to keep up with the emerging technology and the flood of pilot applications, which topped 1,200 during the first six months of 2024, according to an Investigate Midwest analysis of records in October.
However, the agricultural drone industry is much more complex than traditional “backyard” drones flown by hobbyists. With a width sometimes exceeding 35 feet, the drones can cause significant damage in a crash.
But just as the agricultural drone industry has started to take off, a proposed federal ban last year on Chinese manufacturers threatened to ground much of the sector.
“We’ve been working really hard to educate various members of Congress in the House and the Senate as well as in the USDA about the benefits of spray drones,” said Mariah Scott, CEO of Rantizo, an Iowa-based drone dealer. “
These are really useful tools that are creating great jobs in rural communities. They’re helping farmers treat their acres more efficiently and more cost-effectively.”
Before getting a specific Agricultural Aircraft Operator Certificate, which allows a drone pilot to use chemicals, a person must first complete training and secure a basic drone license.
At the start of last year’s summer growing season, at least 200 pilots were still waiting for the specific certificate, according to federal records obtained by Investigate Midwest.
Desperate, some pilots chose to fly anyway. Several pilots told Investigate Midwest they had illegally flown agricultural drones or suggested they knew others who did.
The pilots are not named in the story because they feared penalties ranging from fines to permit denials. An FAA spokesperson said pilots who fly illegally could face fines up to $30,000.
“The FAA looks into all reports of unauthorized drone operations and investigates when appropriate,” an FAA spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Dealers promoting the new technology and its business opportunities have aided the growth of the agricultural drone industry. The dealers often advertise their ability to help new pilots obtain their certificates quickly.
“If you wait until June (to start your business), it just takes longer than you think it will,” said Isaac Strubbe, a drone pilot who became a dealer last year. “July hits, and legally, you can’t do anything about it.”
Drone proponents call Chinese fears unfounded, worry ban would sink industry
Despite the increased demand for agricultural drones, a volatile regulatory environment could limit growth.
Last year, one version of the U.S. House’s National Defense Authorization Act included a ban on Chinese-manufactured drones. DJI Agriculture, a Chinese-based company, manufactures around 70% of the nation’s agricultural drones.
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Lawmakers behind the proposed ban warned the Chinese government could remotely use drones to attack or spy on the United States. However, many in the drone industry have called those fears unfounded.
“One of the things that we’ve seen claimed is that these drones could be somehow remotely taken over and directed to go apply (harmful) chemicals to our food supply,” said Scott, the Iowa-based drone dealer. “But the drones aren’t connected on a network, so they’re not centrally controlled.”
Scott also points out that an agricultural drone’s battery life is about 10 minutes and that a nearby operator would need to fill its tank with chemicals for such an attack to be possible.
“When you put those things together, the idea that somehow a swarm of spray drones could be remotely commandeered and would go spray things is just not true,” Scott said.
As for spying, critics of the proposed ban point out that agricultural drones aren’t used to collect imagery and that most field data is publicly available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“There has been no factual evidence suggesting that data collected by agricultural drones is being provided to the Chinese government,” said Bryan Sanders, president of HSE-UAV, an agricultural drone seller, and a member of the American Spray Drone Coalition.
“On the contrary, companies like DJI have proactively (and voluntarily) implemented geofence flight restrictions for restricted airspace, demonstrating a commitment to security, not espionage.”
Formed earlier this year, the American Spray Drone Coalition lobbied against the proposed ban.
The organization said the companies in its coalition represent 80% of the U.S. drone spraying market, including Agri Spray Drones, Bestway Ag, Drone Nerds and Pegasus Robotics.
Drone efficiency could improve waste and benefit environment
Agricultural drone proponents also believe the industry could benefit the environment.
A 2021 study by the University of Iowa’s Department of Occupational and Environmental Health found that spray drones may substantially reduce chemical drift compared to conventional ground-based spray systems.
“As farms grow larger, so will their dependence on precision agriculture and broader application technologies provided by outside labor forces, including UAV application,” the study said.
However, more research needs to be done to confirm the strengths and tradeoffs, said Erdal Ozkan, a pesticide application professor at Ohio State University.
“I cannot say clearly that drift is going to be much reduced with the drones compared to ground application because there are not enough experiments conducted by third-party universities and other research organizations,” Ozkan said.
However, spraying efficiency could increase as technology advances, Ozkan said, especially as drones become more capable of moving autonomously in groups – a process known as swarming.
While most popular for spraying pesticides and fungicides, some drone models also come with tanks for solid materials, allowing pilots to spread seeds for cover crops.
Others use drones to spray paint the roofs of livestock sheds to reflect more sunlight and reduce heat risks to the animals inside.
Beyond crops, agricultural drones can also spray mosquito and fly repellent for livestock. Browning, the Nebraska drone pilot, said her family volunteers their services to churches to spray for bugs around cemeteries.
The volunteer work has helped their business expand through word of mouth. Her family has traveled up to 100 miles from their home for a spray job.
“It’s definitely harder to do all of this than it seems,” Browning said. “It’s a great idea and all of that, but it’s not easy.”
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