Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the University of California, Merced, are testing a drone-mounted methane-detection device that sports a miniaturized version of the NASA Mars Curiosity Rovers’ sensor array.

“We utilized NASA’s investments to make our detector so small and able to withstand some of the issues associated with UAVs,” says Lance Christensen, OPLS principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., about the small, open-path laser spectrometer (OPLS) sensor mounted on his test drone.

这是一个微型，200,000美元的火星好奇漫游者的较大光谱仪。Christensen补充说，该传感器足够敏感，可以以每秒十亿分的20份来测量空气颗粒物，并且其保护性住房的成本比设备本身高。18luck.cub流动站使用其甲烷传感器找到气体烟气，以期在火星上找到产生甲烷的生命形式。但是Christensen和他的研究合作伙伴来自UC Merced的机电一体化，嵌入式系统和自动化（MESA）实验室，使用其传感器来发现管道中的甲烷泄漏。

他说，在测试期间，克里斯滕森的团队在已知的位置释放了一小撮至中等数量的甲烷，然后飞行无人机，以查看其能够检测到的速度和查明甲烷羽流。与加利福尼亚州圣克拉拉市Picarro Inc.的Picarro测量师类似，NASA传感器在两个镜子之间弹跳激光束以检测甲烷（ENR 9/7/15p。62）。新利luck

The best way to visualize what the sensor sees is to imagine a plume of cigarette smoke and how it disperses in the air, says Christensen. His algorithm is designed to pick out that plume; the drone flies by the plume until it pins down the location.

“It gets sharper and sharper the closer we get to the source,” says Christensen. Though the team has a pilot flying and monitoring the drone during tests for safety purposes, they also are toying with sensor and flight automation to make the drone an automated, methane-seeking system.

克里斯滕森说，与加利福尼亚州的飞行员项目在不久18luck官网的将来。克里斯滕森补充说：“我看到这种情况很快发生了。”