Based in Boulder, CO and founded in 2011, Black Swift Technologies is recognized for delivering reliable, robust, and highly accurate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) capable of flying scientific payloads in demanding atmospheric environments (high-altitude, arctic, desert, corrosive particulates, and strong turbulence). Our purpose-built scientific aerial platforms are used around the globe for a variety of specialized atmospheric research missions in extreme conditions, including monitoring and assessing wildland fires, volcanoes, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
A purpose-built research platform engineered to achieve high altitude flights through strong winds and damaging particulates, the Black Swift S2™ is a durable, terrain-following UAS platform suitable for deployment in harsh environments typical of nomadic scientific field campaigns.
Black Swift Technologies was awarded a NASA contract to design an aerial vehicle capable of conducting upper atmospheric observations of the planet Venus. The planetary aerial vehicle being proposed is based on dynamic soaring, a proven method to extract energy from atmospheric shear that has propelled the fastest small-scale aircraft in the world, and provided the energy necessary for long-endurance low-level flights of birds across oceans.
“While there have been a variety of systems proposed for upper atmospheric observations of Venus, the planet’s high wind speeds pose a significant design challenge,” emphasizes Jack Elston, Ph.D., CEO of Black Swift Technologies. “Our solution will be designed to not only survive in the harsh wind environment, but also simultaneously perform targeted sampling of the atmosphere while continuously extracting energy, even on the dark side of the planet.”
Details behind this revolutionary approach to planetary atmospheric research is found in the white paper titled, “In Situ Exploration of Venus’ Clouds by Dynamic Soaring – Expanding Sampling Capabilities Through Energy Harvesting.”
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