NASA WFF Logo, NASA Wallops Flight Facility
MPL Capability Catalog

Mission Planning Lab

Aerosonde - Piccolo

Piccolo

Description

NASA and Aerosonde North America, Inc., conducted several flights of the Aerosonde unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) February 20 through 27. The flights showed the ability of the small UAV to operate from the Wallops Flight Facility, fly a predetermined flight mission, and gather scientific data.

The Aerosonde UAV flew a NASA instrument that measures Global Positioning System (GPS) signals reflected from the Earth surface. Using these reflected signals over land scientists can infer surface soil moisture and over water derive wind speeds, surface roughness or wave heights.

Video

This video is a Satellite Tool Kit (STK) representation of the Aerosonde-Piccolo UAV flight from the Wallops Flight Facility. Shown is the takeoff with telemetry tracking, and the full flight of the vehicle.

WFF flight: UAVPiccolo.avi (68.5 Mb).

Screenshots

Listed below are various screenshots from the STK scenario of this UAV Piccolo flight.

Aerial View 1 Aerial View 2 Aerial View 3 Flight Path Model

Downloads

The AGI Viewer is required in order to view a VDF file type. Using this viewer allows for user interactivity (zoom, pan and adjusting time step). Download the free AGI Viewer at www.stk.com (68.5 Mb).

VDF of WFF flight: w_piccolo.vdf (203 kb).

NASA Logo - nasa.gov