Family of Miniature, Expendable Environmental Sensors

Advances in microelectronics, data communication systems and sensor technology have led to the production of relatively small, inexpensive and accurate measuring devices that can be considered expendable. Releasing these compact sensor packages from manned and unmanned aircraft provides the user a mechanism to place sampling points with great accuracy as opposed to conventional ground-based, balloon and ship-launched methods. Moreover, the availability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) and satellite-based navigation aids such as the global positioning satellite (GPS) system have added the flexibility of deploying totally automated payloads in areas unsafe or mission flight times too lengthy for manned operations. Neptune Sciences, Inc. (NSI) has compiled a requirements list based on DoD and scientific environmental measurement needs including meteorological, oceanographic, nuclear/ chemical/ biological (NBC) and acoustics. As a result of our ongoing work during the integration of a meteorological dropsonde/in-situ package to the Predator UAV, we propose the development of a "family" of compact, expendable sensors around a common dispenser to address a variety of environmental measurement needs.