Test flight

摘要

Southampton University scientists have used rapid prototyping to create an aircraft that will be used to study the Earth's atmosphere. The unmanned platform is part of the ASTRA (Atmospheric Science Through Robotic Aircraft) project that aims to demonstrate how a low-cost, custom-built, high-altitude platform could be developed and manufactured quickly. Dr Andras Sobester, project leader at Southampton, said: 'If there is a phenomenon that happens suddenly and you want to deploy some kind of instrument to measure it, then our device is ideal.' Examples of such phenomena include volcano eruptions and nuclear fallout.