[meteorite-list] Lunar Crater Drone Crash Video - Team LunarRock

From: Raremeteorites <raremeteorites_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2016 11:41:33 -0800
Message-ID: <198B0B7560544C569C1CFF1FF7F5C082_at_HPDESKTOP>

Dear List Members,

Our last trip proves that depending too much on technology is not always a
good thing. We lost our drone capabilities on the third day of the Team
LunarRock expedition last September. Two team members, "Action Jackson" and
my stepson temporarily separated from the rest of the eight person, four
vehicle group on our way to northern Nevada. They managed to crash the
navigation drone at Lunar Crater, Nevada before we had a chance to use it on
the rest of the trip. Action Jackson is an expert drone pilot having solved
the "Giant Crystal" mystery at Christmas Tree Pass with it two days before
and a night flight over Pahrump the previous evening in addition to hundreds
of hours of logged flight time. The range had been extended on this drone
so that we could use it to scout ahead when navigating uncharted trails and
to determine property boundaries so that we would not end up on somebody's
else's land or worse yet, a mining claim where you are likely to be shot.

Image of drone pre-packed for the Team LunarRock September Nevada
expedition.
http://themeteoritesite.com/adam/Nevada2016Trip/DronePreFlight.jpg

An example of one of the flight plans over our Rye Patch, Nevada property
near where "Curious Iron Stones" were being found by miners. I will get
into the surprising findings to what the "Curious Iron Stones" actually
turned out to be later:
http://themeteoritesite.com/adam/Nevada2016Trip/DroneFlightPlan13.jpg

It doesn't matter how much you prepare for a trip. Unexpected events always
seem to crop up on them. Our backup drone was not ready for the trip so it
was left behind. It was never registered anyway. You will note that the
Jeep Cherokee in the video is the same one that I was offering a few weeks
ago. The Jeep Cherokee is like an old friend, always reliable, always
getting us into tough areas and then out again making it difficult to part
with. This 2,200 plus mile journey was the last expedition that we had
planned for it since we have more than enough updated 4X4s to handle future
trips. Speaking about updates, I had to turn off our navigation computers
in the updated Jeep Rubicons since they became annoying, constantly warning
us about dangerous trail conditions, rollovers and steep terrain. I do not
need a computer telling when to disconnect the sway bars or engaging the
lockers. It became nerve-wracking having the computer distracting me with
verbal commands when paralleling a 300 foot cliff with inches to spare. The
computer would unexpectedly engage traction control, downhill and uphill
assists making it even more problematic and unpredictable. This made me
appreciate the simple and very effective Quadra-Trac 4X4 system in the older
Jeep Cherokee.

Here is the video of the drone taking spectacular footage of Lunar Crater
before meeting its demise at the very end:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C0QWSGn108

Although the crash doesn't appear to be much, dust got into one of the
Chinese-made motors and seized it permanently. Even though the flight
capabilities were gone, we managed to use its 12 decimal point navigation
system, which is far more accurate than our Garmin Rhino GPSs to find
property monument markers, boundaries and other destinations by hanging it
out the window while driving. It is interesting to note that Moon dust also
raised havoc with equipment during the Apollo and Luna missions.


Best Regards,

Adam Hupe
Tem LunarRock
Received on Tue 20 Dec 2016 02:41:33 PM PST