To protect themselves from lightning, the Japanese invented a paraumpy drone, capable of attracting electric discharges before they touch the earth.
It looks like science fiction, but the Japanese company NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) has announced the existence of a drone capable of attracting and “driving” lightning. The idea is to use this flying device like Mobile eavesable to hover over the cities during a thunderstorm and attract electric discharges before they touch earth and produce potential damage.
The prototype, tested in Japan last December, would have resisted real lightning, while remaining in flight, while reporting slight signs of melting on the body. If confirmed by independent studies, the system could protect cities and infrastructures from blackouts and fires caused by electrical storms, increasingly frequent and violent also due to climate change.
How it works. The test took place in the Prefecture of Shimane, in Japan, on 13 December 2024. In the phases preceding the arrival of a storm, the drone reached 300 meters altitude bringing with it the head of a conductive thread, connected to a switch on the ground. Once activated, The system has increased the electric field around the dronestimulating a discharge from heaven. The Saetta hit the cable, which guided the current towards the ground; But how did he not get down the drone? Simple: to protect the internal electronics, the aircraft has been wrapped in a Faraday cage, capable of shielding the structure. According to the Japanese company, it could also have endured five more powerful stresses.
Lightning and laser. That of attracting the Saette is not a completely new idea. Recently, a group of researchers managed to guide electric discharges Using laser pulsesa technique hypothesized since the 70s. The principle is the same: to provide a privileged point in heaven where to attract the discharge, then bringing it away from sensitive structures.
But if laser work as “baits”, Drones must also survive the blow. The advantage of the Japanese ones is therefore twofold: they can attract lightning and, theoretically, fly away after the impact. For this reason, the company aims to use them to protect antennas, control units and telecommunication networks in high -risk areas.
Energy of the future? NTT, however, look even further and dream of a tomorrow in which atmospheric discharges can become one New energy source. Every minute, on earth, about about 6,000 lightningwith a charge capable of melting metals or setting fire forests. Being able to capture this potential and to introduce it into the electricity grid would be revolutionary.
But for now, it is a theoretical hypothesis: the batteries and technologies necessary to accumulate such a quantity of energy in such a short time do not yet exist and many scientists remain skeptical, defining the “impractical” idea with current tools. Of course, we are still far from what has been prophesied in Back to the future 2with Delorean exploiting the strength of lightning to be able to go back to travel through time. But if today a drone can attract and resist an electric discharge, perhaps tomorrow we could really exploit the energy of the sky, without the need for the help of “doc”.
