Narwhal (surface drone)

2024: Product Announcement

In Russia, a surface drone operating on solar and wind energy is presented. The drone, developed by SR Space's holding subsidiary SR Drones, successfully passed its first tests on June 27, 2024, confirming its effectiveness and environmental friendliness.

In the first tests, the Narwhal drone demonstrated its capabilities in oceanic and atmospheric observations. SR Drones specialists checked the launch of the vessel, its navigation characteristics, and also tested the transmission of data from the drone to the coastal communication station. The inspection of all auxiliary devices providing control of the vessel was also successful.

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SR Drones

The Narwhal drone is designed for oceanic and atmospheric observations and significantly reduces the cost of scientific research. During the tests, the first data on the composition of air near the coastline were obtained, which confirms its high effectiveness in monitoring environmental indicators. The air temperature was 26 degrees, humidity - 70%, content of nitric oxide (NO2) - 0.01 ppm, ozone (O3) - 0.02 ppm, pm10 - 0.146 mkg/m³, pm1.0 - 0.090 mkg/m³, pm2.5 - 0.109 mkg/m³.

According to SR Drones, the cost of one day of a drone mission is approximately 200 thousand rubles, which is significantly lower than the cost of traditional research vessels, the cost of which varies from 4 to 10 million rubles a day.

The Narwhal surface vehicle solves several scientific problems: improving meteorological and hydrological forecasts, calibrating and validating satellite data, monitoring and tracking marine mammals and fish, as well as controlling illegal catch and illegal traffic.

SR Drones plans to conduct a second test in the future, which will test the remote control system and collect data using sensors installed on board the vessel.^[1]

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