Watch Video: First Drone Delivery on Mount Everest “Successfully Completed”
China-based DJI recently teamed up with Nepalese drone service company Airlift, video production company 8KRAW, and certified mountain sherpa, Mingma Gyalje, to fly the world’s first successful drone delivery on Mount Everest, reports stattimes.com.
“A DJI FlyCart 30,” explains the article, “flew three oxygen bottles and 1.5kg of supplies from the Everest Base Camp to Camp 1 (5,300–6,000m ASL). On the return trip trash was carried back down.”
The two Camps are separated by the Khumbu Icefall, one of the most perilous stages of the ascent. While helicopters can theoretically make the same journey, they are rarely used due to the significant dangers and costs.
The article continues, “Before undertaking delivery flights, DJI engineers considered the extreme environmental challenges of Everest, including temperatures ranging between ‑15° to 5°C, wind speeds up to 15m/s, and high altitudes over 6,000m ASL. Rigorous tests of DJI FlyCart 30 were then conducted, including unloaded hover, wind resistance, low-temperature and weight capacity tests with successively heavier payloads.”
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Usually, the responsibility of transporting supplies and clearing rubbish on Everest are on the shoulders of local Sherpa guides who may need to cross the icefall over 30 times in a season to transport supplies such as oxygen bottles, gas canisters, tents, food and ropes. Each climber is estimated to leave 8kg of trash behind on Everest, and despite cleanup efforts, tonnes of waste remain on its slopes.
The FlyCart 30 drone can carry 15kg between camps in 12 minutes for a round trip, day or night, easing the burden on Sherpas, who repeatedly risk their lives navigating the treacherous Khumbu Icefall.
Sherpa Minima Gyalke, remarked, ”We need to spend six to eight hours each day walking through this icefall. Last year I lost three Sherpas. If we’re not lucky, if our time is not right, we lose our life there.”
Christina Zhang, DJI Senior Corporate Strategy Director, commented, “Our team embarked on this endeavour to help and make cleanup efforts on Everest safer and more efficient. The ability to safely transport equipment, supplies and waste by drone has the potential to revolutionise Everest mountaineering logistics, facilitate trash cleanup efforts, and improve safety for all involved.”
The deployment of delivery drones in high-altitude regions not only improves safety and efficiency in such challenging environments, but highlights the importance of environmental conservation and sustainable practices within the mountaineering industry.
Launched globally in January, DJI FlyCart 30 has been deployed to help plant saplings in steep Japanese hillside environments; transform a solar PV installation in Mexico; assist mountain fire rescue efforts in Norway; and improve scientific research operations in Antarctica.
For more information
https://www.dji.com/uk/flycart-30
(News Source: www.stattimes.com)
(Images: DJI)
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