Drones and Radiation

[Mavic - Pilot]

Does anyone know or has experience with drones flying in radioactive environments? Does a drone’s (Mavic 2) radio signal get disturbed? Could the Mavic become radioactively poisoned upon coming back??

 

[Thomas B]

Interesting question for the physicists among us, but if it goes down in one just leave it!

 

[Oneball 1971]

Are you off to Chernobyl?

 

[4wd]

Background levels of nuclear radiation won't have any effect on radio waves, completely different thing though in a nuclear explosion there would be a damaging burst of intense RF radiation which would probably kill most electronics.
In a location such as Chernobyl the air isn't affected now. Any hot particles are long washed into the ground, but disturbing the earth in any way is inadvisable.
Taking off from a hard surface should be low risk but dust thrown up could be dangerous. So better off the ground in some way perhaps.

 

[Mavic - Pilot]

Are you off to Chernobyl?

Uhm... yeah, Prypiat and the Duga Radar

 

[Mavic - Pilot]

Background levels of nuclear radiation won't have any effect on radio waves, completely different thing though in a nuclear explosion there would be a damaging burst of intense RF radiation which would probably kill most electronics.
In a location such as Chernobyl the air isn't affected now. Any hot particles are long washed into the ground, but disturbing the earth in any way is inadvisable.
Taking off from a hard surface should be low risk but dust thrown up could be dangerous. So better off the ground in some way perhaps.

So, will it pick up dangerous levels of radiation, which could relfect on me?

 

[Vitamin-J]

Any non-ionize hardened microcomputers placed in an area where there is active beta decay, releasing beta particles, will be vulnerable to dosed degradation over time.

Particularly sensitive are the transistors inside of every microcomputer, these transistors are now so small that numerous impacts with beta particles will substantially degrade/destroy their ability to change state - causing computer malfunctions.

How long it takes for these effects to be noticed is mostly a function of transistors size, the amount of ionizing radiation, & duration of exposure.

I’m nearly certain DJI did not ionize-harden any of their consumer drones’ electronics. Thus, there will be an permanent impact to the drone. How much of an impact depends on the above.

 

[radman]

You do not have to worry about ionizing radiation interfering with radio transmissions or damaging the electronics in your drone. The radiation levels are many orders of magnitude below levels of concern for damaging your drone. The only beta radiation fields that I have personally seen that were intense enough to damage transistors and computers were inside hot cells where spent nuclear fuel elements were being disassembled.

I have some expertise in this field; I am radiological and health physicist with 35 years experience. I have designed and built instruments to detect nuclear criticality accidents and to estimate radiation doses. I also built the first active dosimetry instrument to measure the actual radiation dose to astronauts on Space Shuttle mission STS-31. So I have some experience with high radiation fields, including working on the team to provide radiation dosimetry instruments for the Mars Missions.

My only concern is that you might accidentally land in a highly contaminated zone and unintentionally bring home a radioactively contaminated drone. But I can’t believe that the authorities would allow this. Good luck with your flights!

 

[Elude]

Duga! Sweet. Exposing the drone to radiation could give it cancer.

 

[FoxhallGH]

Taking off from a hard surface should be low risk but dust thrown up could be dangerous. So better off the ground in some way perhaps.

That's the most important point to note ... Health-wise (your-own!), it would be best to learn to hand-launch and hand-catch your drone so that you are not getting any dust blown around that you might then breathe ...

 

[Cymruflyer]

So, will it pick up dangerous levels of radiation, which could relfect on me?

Not from the air but if you disturb the earth or dust gets blown up and on it and you touch it, then yes you now have R/A particles on you too and you would need to decontaminate everything, the drone and your hands.

If it were flying through the air that was a recent aftermath, then it may well be picking up dust particles all over it and ingesting them into the cooling fans too. And you would never be able to clean that area out. Best bury it in concrete in the middle of the ocean and check on it in about 10,000 years.

 

[Cymruflyer]

You do not have to worry about ionizing radiation interfering with radio transmissions or damaging the electronics in your drone. The radiation levels are many orders of magnitude below levels of concern for damaging your drone. The only beta radiation fields that I have personally seen that were intense enough to damage transistors and computers were inside hot cells where spent nuclear fuel elements were being disassembled.

I have some expertise in this field; I am radiological and health physicist with 35 years experience. I have designed and built instruments to detect nuclear criticality accidents and to estimate radiation doses. I also built the first active dosimetry instrument to measure the actual radiation dose to astronauts on Space Shuttle mission STS-31. So I have some experience with high radiation fields, including working on the team to provide radiation dosimetry instruments for the Mars Missions.

My only concern is that you might accidentally land in a highly contaminated zone and unintentionally bring home a radioactively contaminated drone. But I can’t believe that the authorities would allow this. Good luck with your flights!

It may be hard to believe Anything from "Those" authorities!

 

[Thomas B]

It would be most prudent to have availability of a Geiger counter, etc to check the drone and yourself. Or get a radiation badge for you and one for the drone to both detect and quantify exposure... of course the latter is after the fact.

Please note that the effects of radiation are linear and cumulative and the decay of emitters is 1000’s of years. That is to say getting 100Rem one day will have the same effect on you as getting 1Rem/day for 100 days. A chest X-ray is about 0.02 milliRems for reference. I am involved in medicine as a career and had to know thes things for my safety and to advise patients plus worked with it in the USAF.

 

[Cymruflyer]

Nice to see we have a umber experts in our midst.

 

[Centro777]

Are you off to Chernobyl?

Hi guys, I invite everyone on a trip to Chernobyl! (This is not an advertisement)
I assure you, it is absolutely safe if you follow simple safety rules, and it is very interesting! By the way, flying on drones is allowed, you need to get permission in advance.

 

[radman]

It may be hard to believe Anything from "Those" authorities!

You may be correct! Our old group was the largest health physics organization in the United States, and several of my coworkers were involved in the remediation of several highly contaminated sites in the former Soviet Union that were covered up by Soviet authorities. But as a health physicist I have been trained to be almost paranoid about radioactive contamination control.

 

[Maviac]

Uhm... yeah, Prypiat and the Duga Radar

Please post drone pics and videos of Duga. Would love to see that.

 

[ac0j]

I watched a video of "mr. steele" and some other extreme drone pilots at those places. Stirring up dust from the floors and empty swimming pools and breathing it right in, crashing a drone on top of the abandoned ferris wheel, then climbing it to retrieve the drone. and bouncing drones off of the big antenna as well. They are not bald or dead, so it must be OK?

 

[Fly pilot]

Does anyone know or has experience with drones flying in radioactive environments? Does a drone’s (Mavic 2) radio signal get disturbed? Could the Mavic become radioactively poisoned upon coming back??

Hei, does anyone knows if being a drone pilot while pregnant is dangerous for the baby?