Should Pakistan look into High flying planes instead of satellites

[Safriz]

Zephyr - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

This is a carbon fiber plane powered by solar panels which can fly to 70,000 feet and stay up there for weeks...At that height it can cover an area of 600 miles in diameter...That means instead of expensive satellites these can be used for surveillance and communication or signal relay for 100th of the cost of a satellite..
Should Pakistan look into it and will it be any good?

 

[jagjitnatt]

The idea is good, but with loads of signal processing, optical image capturing, and transmission devices on board, it would be so heavy, it wouldn't be able to take off.

 

[Last Hope]

A great Idea over all!
Maybe we should have around 40 of these!

 

[Avatar]

These planes fall like sticks in mildly bad weather.

 

[silent hawk]

UAVs are not a replacement for satellites. Pakistan needs satellites so that should be the priority. UAVs such as Zephyr should be developed additionally if required not in place of satellites.

 

[Last Hope]

UAVs are not a replacement for satellites. Pakistan needs satellites so that should be the priority. UAVs such as Zephyr should be developed additionally if required not in place of satellites.

Not a bad idea after all!!
Just tell the PAF Aeronautical Engineers with Mechatronics Engineers, and build something superior and use them in case of break downs or possible overloads (until satellite is launched).

Also could be used in the mountains where TTP are hiding, hack their frequency or try to mess with it. I know I may be fooling my self, but it could be done, cant it!?

 

[Safriz]

UAVs are not a replacement for satellites. Pakistan needs satellites so that should be the priority. UAVs such as Zephyr should be developed additionally if required not in place of satellites.

why not? reasons please...

 

[alibaz]

Satellites have their own importance because they are based on very matured technology. These solar powered high flying planes are good ones for introduction of technology and research purposes.

 

[DV RULES]

It is good idea to work over this kind of UAV but not comparable with satellite systems because satellite technology is safer and long run than UAV, moreover interesting countries are working over anti UAV missile to counter them so we must have to develop sophisticated & effected space technology. Well Pakistan already put its legs into this advanced technology and there are modernizations & implementations to combined air defense systems using UAV technology.

 

[nescafe]

The idea is good, but with loads of signal processing, optical image capturing, and transmission devices on board, it would be so heavy, it wouldn't be able to take off.

due to the above mentioned...this will be a dud....it cannot simple transmit.... how it will transmit...

radio - not enough power,
microwave - static satellites use it. requires stable LOS.

 

[kafumanpk]

Aircraft can not replace the satellite.

 

[SQ8]

The idea is good, but with loads of signal processing, optical image capturing, and transmission devices on board, it would be so heavy, it wouldn't be able to take off.

The weight would be from the lens itself..
The CMOS(or else) sensor..the DSP..the governing GPP.. all can be fit into the size of an iphone.. back a few pounds of Li cells.. and you are ok for ten hours of continuous video without charge..or three days of HD pictures..
THe world is a lot different now...

However..in it cannot replace a satellite for a very good reason..
something called a surface to air missile.. unless you design it to be a LO platform..and then the weight truly kicks in.

 

[Haseebullah]

These planes fall like sticks in mildly bad weather.

I doubt mildly bad weather at 70 000 feet

 

[Haseebullah]

due to the above mentioned...this will be a dud....it cannot simple transmit.... how it will transmit...

radio - not enough power,
microwave - static satellites use it. requires stable LOS.

It doesnt have to give real time surveillance imagery.and it can be pre-programmed for flight route.

 

[PRACTICAL PATRIOT]

The weight would be from the lens itself..
The CMOS(or else) sensor..the DSP..the governing GPP.. all can be fit into the size of an iphone.. back a few pounds of Li cells.. and you are ok for ten hours of continuous video without charge..or three days of HD pictures..
THe world is a lot different now...

However..in it cannot replace a satellite for a very good reason..
something called a surface to air missile.. unless you design it to be a LO platform..and then the weight truly kicks in.

the things which you are mentioning that could fit into size of i phone are not powerfull enough to take good quality video or images from that much height, they are only good for small distances. and besides just taking video and images you also need to transmit and receive data. for that you need receiver and transmitter module whose power requirement increase proportionally with the distance to be covered and this power can not be provided by small lithium battery. so all this things together would make it really heavy for its capacity.

but if somehow you can manage to make it capable of carrying much more load hen this could be a stop gap till you launch actual satellite but can not do work of satellite. hence can not replace satellite, so at the most it can be used with mentality of something is better than nothing.