Entomopter: Exploration or Espionage of the Future?

[festergrump]

I found this to be a very interesting read. Searching for other posts on the topic returned no results, so I thought I’d post a few links and see what yall thought of it. An Entomopter, it seems, flaps it’s mechanical wings to fly rather like an insect but uses less power than a propeller or jet engine. I’m intrigued by the “chemical muscles” they say it incorporates, but am saddened they do not go into any great detail about it.

http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/reshor/rh-f01/mars.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_flapper_011205-1.html

I’m quite aware this is the Explosives and Weapons Forum, but this technology might prove worthy in the future for more than Mars exploration. The current terrestrial model boasts a mere 10 gram payload capacity (which is not all that bad considering the mode of flight and maneuverability.). What would you do with 10 grams of space to fill? :D

I was thinking that a “button-cam” would probably weigh in just under 10 grams, and majority of that weight would be battery. The article states that the chemical muscles provide more power than necessary to keep it aloft. Perhaps a 10 gram limit would be enough to include a sound device as well as camera? :confused:

[vulture]

These things could get really interesting with nuclear (polonium) batteries.

The chemical muscle principle is about to be patented, so don't expect them to give away any details.

[streety]

This a really interesting idea. With some skillful piloting it would be easy to get this thing past security in most buildings. The legs seem like a good advantage as well, crawling rather than flying along air vents would save a lot of energy. If you could make those feet sticky so it could cling to the ceiling and point it's camera downwards you would have one very powerful spy tool.

If you add in a transmitter, receiver, camera and microphone I think you will go way over the 10g though. Still, this is only an early model and no doubt many improvements will be made.