NASA Ikhana Helps Battle Against SoCal Wildfires

[mjh]

Anyone else hear about this? NASA used a Predator B recon drone to help firefighters organize their plan of attack against the wildfires in southern California.

For the second consecutive day, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) took off from NASA?s Dryden Flight Research Center in Palmdale, Calif., to map the fires that are burning across Southern California. Equipped with infrared sensors that can pierce smoke and soot, the aircraft will provide thermal imagery that emergency management officials will use to deploy firemen and water bombers battling the fires.

Main linkage

What I had to say about it

L.A. Times article

One more link

I think it's nice to see this kind of technology used in this kind of situation - the drone can be flown for longer durations and is much, much safer than having a pilot in a helo up there.

 

[ProfJohn]

Nice to see everyone in the government doing what they can to help out.

 

[techs]

Nice to see the government using a top secret, stealthy, mulit-million dollar vehicle for what could be done for a fraction of the cost with a Piper Cub.
I guess we don't want the fire to know we are up there taking pictures.

Clearly they are wasting a huge amount of money using the Predator instead of completely capable conventional aircraft.
Clearly this is a b.s. public relations gimmick to gain support for the Predator and defense spending.
And that people would think this was good thing just shows how stupid and unthinking certain Americans are.

 

[Jeff7]

Only one of your links actually works.

Seems like it's not really "NASA's" per se, it's more like "Air Force's" launched with NASA's help.