Earlier quoted context omitted.
Much of the cost of a Predator is because it's a weapon. That's not to say there is an abundance of excellent drones for civilian purchase, but I don't think they would need to be terribly expensive.
My point is that any drone that can stay up in the air for long periods of time and is controlled via a real-time satellite network is going to be expensive. And that type of drone is just not available commercially.
Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
71–80 of 86 posts
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be "pretty exciting" to kill humans rather than arrest them and bring them to justice? I don't think there's anything you could ever say to justify that position. It gives me the impression that you're a maniac.
Excitement is pretty natural if you look at it rationally. It's when killing humans isn't exciting, or worse yet when it's routine or boring, that you really have to worry.
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#73Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#74The USAF's and CIA's use of drones in the Middle East has sparked the imagination across all kinds of projects such as this one. But the reality is that military-style drones that can stay aloft for days are extremely expensive to purchase and to operate. The well-known Predator drone, for example, costs $4 million per airplane, and it requires a classified global satellite network, an uplink station manned with thre…
10 minutes is the median, but they don't have to be line of sight, except as bound by regulation such as in the UK [0]. Still short-range though, and certainly not suitable for this use-case.
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#75This is welcome from Google, as focused aid of this sort can often have an outsize effect, but we must be careful to avoid believing this can solve the problem. For one, sophisticated UAVs that are much more capable than those the WWF is getting are already being used to combat rhino poaching. SANParks, the state agency responsible for South Africa's state-run national parks, has deployed the Seeker II military-spec…
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe they could follow the rhinos with UAVs to cut down on patrol-space? (or spend the money flooding the market with fake-rhino-horn?)
Too many rhinos dispersed across too far a distance. Unlike elephants rhinos don't necessarily herd in large groups. Many of the rhinos killed were either alone or in a small group of 2-4. I'm not sure flooding the market with fake rhino horn is feasible as the underworld will develop its own authentication methods, but one suggestion that has been discussed is to flood the market with rhino horns from the huge stock…
My google searching suggests there are 5k-10k black rhinos in the world. Seems plausible to monitor each one with a dedicated UAV, once you take into account economies of scale.
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would probably violate multiple international treaties, but I know I'd be willing to pay $50 or so per shot, if the drone had an onboard weapon that could be aimed over IP. That would do some good in the world, and would be pretty exciting as well. For safety, targeting could be supervised, and approval to fire issued or withheld, by the company selling the camera time. It's something that should probably be licen…
Eye for an eye and the whole world will go blind, buddy
-- Bill, Seven Psychopaths
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Too many rhinos dispersed across too far a distance. Unlike elephants rhinos don't necessarily herd in large groups. Many of the rhinos killed were either alone or in a small group of 2-4. I'm not sure flooding the market with fake rhino horn is feasible as the underworld will develop its own authentication methods, but one suggestion that has been discussed is to flood the market with rhino horns from the huge stock…
> Too many rhinos dispersed across too far a distance. Unlike elephants rhinos don't necessarily herd in large groups. Many of the rhinos killed were either alone or in a small group of 2-4. My google searching suggests there are 5k-10k black rhinos in the world. Seems plausible to monitor each one with a dedicated UAV, once you take into account economies of scale.
Black rhinos are only one subspecies, white rhinos are just as threatened by poaching and there are around 20 000 of those, so you're looking at around 25 000 rhinos in Africa.
You'd need at least three UAVs per rhino, one on station at any given time, one ready to replace it once its endurance runs out and one spare in case something happens to one of the other two. Then there's the problem of actually tracking the rhino 24x7, through night and bad weather, while ensuring that the base station and recovery team stays close.
You'd also need skilled pilots / operators to keep the UAV on station and interpret what's on the screen and, once again, you'd need more than one per rhino to enable 24x7 shifts.
Once you factor in the number of UAVs, the dispersed recovery and handling teams and the need for skilled operators, you could potentially be speaking of 75 000 UAVs and a similar number of teams and pilots / operators. Even if we assume that UAVs with sufficient endurance for this task could be reduced to $500 000 each, that still results in a capital cost of nearly $40 billion, over and above the sure-to-be-mammoth operating costs. So it's not feasible.
A better approach is to fit each rhino with a GPS tracker, which is being done, and to use ranger patrols augmented by technology like UAVs and ground radar to attempt to spot poachers moving in the parks. That's why this is where SANParks and others are focusing their attention and resources.
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#79This is welcome from Google, as focused aid of this sort can often have an outsize effect, but we must be careful to avoid believing this can solve the problem. For one, sophisticated UAVs that are much more capable than those the WWF is getting are already being used to combat rhino poaching. SANParks, the state agency responsible for South Africa's state-run national parks, has deployed the Seeker II military-spec…
Minor detail: " . . . 37 000 km², that's larger than Belgium, Israel, Lebanon and most US states." Its smaller than all but nine US states. To put it in perspective, its smaller than West Virginia, larger than Maryland.
Re: Google Pays for Drones To Bust African Rhino Poachers
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe they could follow the rhinos with UAVs to cut down on patrol-space? (or spend the money flooding the market with fake-rhino-horn?)
Too many rhinos dispersed across too far a distance. Unlike elephants rhinos don't necessarily herd in large groups. Many of the rhinos killed were either alone or in a small group of 2-4. I'm not sure flooding the market with fake rhino horn is feasible as the underworld will develop its own authentication methods, but one suggestion that has been discussed is to flood the market with rhino horns from the huge stock…