Global Hawk, NASA's New Remote-Controlled Plane

NASA image acquired October 23, 2009. At NASA’s Dryden Research Center in California, a group of engineers, scientists, and aviation technicians have set up camp in a noisy, chilly hangar on Edwards Air Force base. For the past two weeks, they have been working to mount equipment—from HD video cameras to ozone sensors—onto NASA’s Global Hawk, a remote-controlled airplane that can fly for up to 30 hours at altitudes up to 65,000 feet. The team is gearing up for the Global Hawk Pacific campaign, a series of four or five scientific research flights that will take the Global Hawk over the Pacific Ocean and Arctic regions. The 44-foot-long aircraft, with its comically large nose and 116-foot wingspan is pictured in the photograph above, banking for landing over Rogers Dry Lake in California at the end of a test flight on October 23, 2009. The long wings carry the plane’s fuel, and the bulbous nose is one of the payload bays, which house the science instruments. For the Global Hawk Pacific campaign, the robotic aircraft will carry ten science instruments that will sample the chemical composition of air in the troposphere (the atmospheric layer closest to Earth) and the stratosphere (the layer above the troposphere). The mission will also observe clouds and aerosol particles in the troposphere. The primary purpose of the mission is to collect observations that can be used to check the accuracy of simultaneous observations collected by NASA’s Aura satellite. Co-lead scientist Paul Newman from Goddard Space Flight Center is writing about the ground-breaking mission for the Earth Observatory’s Notes from the Field blog. NASA Photograph by Carla Thomas. <b><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html" rel="nofollow">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></b> is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. To learn more about this image go to: <a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=43291" rel="nofollow">earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=43291</a>

NASA Mars Underwater Rover Phantom 2 TROV (Telepresences Controlled Remotely Operated Vehicle) cameras

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NASA Mars Underwater Rover Phantom 2 TROV (Telepresences Controlled Remotely Operated Vehicle) - helmet head piece

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NASA Mars Underwater Rover Phantom 2 TROV (Telepresences Controlled Remotely Operated Vehicle) with Dr. Carol Stoker and Owen Gwynne

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International Space Station (ISS) Remote Power Control Module (R

ISS011-E-13361 (20 September 2005) --- Astronaut John L. Phillips, Expedition 11 NASA science officer and flight engineer, performs a Remote Power Control Module (RPCM) remove and replacement in the Unity node of the international space station.

Phillips removes Failed RPCM (Remote Power Controller Module)

iss073e0379873 (July 21, 2025) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 73 Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers works inside the International Space Station's Tranquility module swapping out a remote power controller module and inspecting components on the Avionics Rack.

NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers swaps out a remote power controller module

A NASA remote-controlled model motorized sailplane lies over Rogers Dry Lake to test the theory that catching heat thermals extends flight time for small UAVs.

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Astronaut Susan Helms on aft flight deck with RMS controls

STS064-05-028 (9-20 Sept. 1994) --- On the space shuttle Discovery's aft flight deck, astronaut Susan J. Helms handles controls for the Remote Manipulator System (RMS). The robot arm operated by Helms, who remained inside the cabin, was used to support several tasks performed by the crew during the almost 11-day mission. Those tasks included the release and retrieval of the free-flying Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool For Astronomy 201 (SPARTAN 201), a six-hour spacewalk and the Shuttle Plume Impingement Flight Experiment (SPIFEX). Photo credit: NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

STS040-S-134 (5 June 1991) --- The space shuttle Columbia, with a seven-member crew aboard, soars toward a nine-day mission devoted to life sciences research. Launch was at 9:24:51 a.m. (EDT), June 5, 1991. This 35mm photo was taken by a remote control tracking device mounted 1600 feet from epicenter. Photo credit: NASA

STS-40 Columbia, OV-102, KSC liftoff from a remote control tracking device

Scaled Composites' Doug Shane examines the screen of his ground control station during tests in New Mexico. Shane used this configuration as the ground control station to remotely pilot the Proteus aircraft during a NASA sponsored series of tests.

PA-30 Twin Comanche - NASA 808 in hangar

Technicians check instrumentation and systems on NASA 808, a PA-30 aircraft, prior to a research flight. The aircraft was used as the testbed in development of control systems for remotely piloted vehicles that were "flown" from the ground. The concept led to highly successful programs such as the HiMAT and the subscale F-15 remotely piloted vehicles. Over the years, NASA 808 has also been used for spin and stall research related to general aviation aircraft and also research to alleviate wake vortices behind large jetliners. This 1980 photograph taken inside a hangar shows technicians measuring moment of inertia.

Atmospheric Probe Shows Promise in Test Flight

Justin Hall, left, chief pilot of small unmanned aircraft systems, carries the atmospheric probe at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The probe, which was designed and built at the center, flew after release from a quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft on Oct. 22, 2024, above Rogers Dry Lake, a flight area adjacent to the NASA center. At right, Justin Link, unmanned aircraft systems pilot, checks out the controllers for the two aircraft.

PA-30 Twin Comanche - NASA 808 in flight

Dryden Flight Research Center's Piper PA-30 Twin Commanche, which helped validate the RPRV concept, descends to a remotely controlled landing on Rogers Dry Lake, unassisted by the onboard pilot. A Piper PA-30 Twin Commanche, known as NASA 808, was used at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center as a rugged workhorse in a variety of research projects associated with both general aviation and military projects. In the early 1970s, the PA-30, serial number 301498, was used to test a flight technique used to fly Remotely Piloted Research Vehicles (RPRV's). The technique was first tested with the cockpit windows of the light aircraft blacked out while the pilot flew the aircraft utilizing a television monitor which gave him a "pilot's eye" view ahead of the aircraft. Later pilots flew the aircraft from a ground cockpit, a procedure used with all RPRV's. TV and two-way telemetry allow the pilot to be in constant control of the aircraft. The apparatus mounted over the cockpit is a special fish eye lens camera, used to obtain images that are transmitted to the ground based cockpit. This project paved the way for sophisticated, highly successful research programs involving high risk spin, stall, and flight control conditions, such as the HiMAT and the subscale F-15 remotely piloted vehicles. Over the years, NASA 808 has also been used for spin and stall research related to general aviation aircraft and also research to alleviate wake vortices behind large jetliners.

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jsc2024e041214 (2/10/2024) --- Dr. Michael Jobst remotely operates a surgical robot aboard the International Space Station using controls at the Virtual Incision offices in Lincoln, Nebraska. Robotic Surgery Tech Demo tests techniques for performing robotic surgery in microgravity using a miniature surgical robot that can be remotely controlled or teleoperated from Earth. Results from this investigation could support the development of robotic systems to perform remote procedures. Miniaturization and the ability to remotely control robots may help to make surgery available anywhere and anytime. Image courtesy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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jsc2024e041213 (2/10/2024) --- Dr. Michael Jobst remotely operates a surgical robot aboard the International Space Station using controls at the Virtual Incision offices in Lincoln, Nebraska. Robotic Surgery Tech Demo tests techniques for performing robotic surgery in microgravity using a miniature surgical robot that can be remotely controlled or teleoperated from Earth. Results from this investigation could support the development of robotic systems to perform remote procedures. Miniaturization and the ability to remotely control robots may help to make surgery available anywhere and anytime. Image courtesy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Telepresence Virtual Reality (Mars) Underwater, TROV (Telepresence Controlled REmote Vehicle)

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jsc2024e041212 (2/10/2024) --- Professor Shane Farritor (left) watches as Dr. Michael Jobst remotely operates a surgical robot aboard the International Space Station using controls at the Virtual Incision offices in Lincoln, Nebraska. Robotic Surgery Tech Demo tests techniques for performing robotic surgery in microgravity using a miniature surgical robot that can be remotely controlled or teleoperated from Earth. Results from this investigation could support the development of robotic systems to perform these procedures. Miniaturization and the ability to remotely control robots may help to make surgery available anywhere and anytime. Image courtesy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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jsc2024e041215 (2/10/2024) --- Dr. Dmitry Oleynikov remotely operates a surgical robot aboard the International Space Station using controls at the Virtual Incision offices in Lincoln, Nebraska. Robotic Surgery Tech Demo tests techniques for performing a simulated surgical procedure in microgravity using a miniature surgical robot that can be remotely controlled or teleoperated from Earth. Results from this investigation could support the development of robotic systems to perform these procedures. Miniaturization and the ability to remotely control robots may help to make surgery available anywhere and anytime. Image courtesy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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jsc2024e041211 (2/10/2024) --- Robotic Surgery Tech Demo tests techniques for performing robotic surgery in microgravity using a miniature surgical robot that can be remotely controlled or teleoperated from Earth. Several monitors at the Virtual Incision offices in Lincoln, Nebraska show views of the International Space Station during remote operations. Near the center, a larger monitor shows inside the box aboard the space station that houses the surgical robot. Results from this investigation could support the development of robotic systems to perform remote procedures. Miniaturization and the ability to remotely control robots may help to make surgery available anywhere and anytime. Image courtesy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The control room for the remotely piloted X-56A has a feature that most do not – the pilot and co-pilot are in the front of the room, seen at left. The X-56A team has successfully suppressed flutter, which is a potentially destructive oscillation, with a classical and a modern controller. The controllers are essentially mathematical ways of directing the aircraft.

X-56A Control Room is Uncommon

SPACE ACCELERATION MEASUREMENT SYSTEM 2 - SAMS 2 - FLIGHT HARDWARE - ICU - INTERIM CONTROL UNIT - RTS - REMOTE TRIAXIAL SENSOR DRAWERS

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A pilot for General Atomics guides the Altair remotely operated aircraft from a ground control station using both visual and telemetered data.