when the day comes that UAVs are routinely crisscrossing the skies performing tasks ranging from inspecting pipelines to surveying land to providing data and communications during and after natural disasters, NASA’s civilian research variant of the MQ-9 Predator B—the Ikhana—will have played a pivotal role in transitioning UAS from military to civil use through public and private collaboration.
Since 2006 when NASA acquired the Ikhana—a Choctaw word which means intelligent, conscious or aware—from General Atomics to support its earth science missions, the UAV has been used to develop and demonstrate advanced aeronautical technologies and as a test bed to develop capabilities and technologies that improve unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
NASA Armstrong Fact Sheet: Ikhana/Predator B Unmanned Science and Research Aircraft System | NASA
A General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Predator B unmanned aircraft system (UAS) was acquired by NASA in November 2006 to support Earth science missions and advanced aeronautical technology development. The aircraft, named Ikhana, also acts as a test bed to develop capabilities and technologies to improve the utility of unmanned aircraft systems.
The Aviationist » NASA’s demilitarized MQ-9 Predator B drone filmed Orion splashdown for NASA TV
The Orion descending for landing as planned in the Pacific Ocean was filmed by NASA’s Ikhana UAS (Unmanned Aerial System). The drone, a demilitarized MQ-9 Predator B owned and operated by the agency with technical support from the Air Force’s Medium Altitude UAS Division and the Nevada Air National Guard, was acquired by NASA in 2006 to support science missions and technology developments.
GA-ASI Advances SAA Capability With Two New Flight Tests | sUAS News
GA-ASI is currently working with NASA to integrate the proof-of-concept SAA system aboard NASA’s Predator B, called Ikhana. Ikhana will serve as the primary test aircraft in a SAA flight test scheduled to take place this month and next at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. The flight test campaign will evaluate the SAA system in a wide variety of both collision avoidance and self-separation encounters and will include a sensor fusion algorithm being developed by Honeywell.
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