Prototype drone is (mostly) biodegradable
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028424
New Scientist : When a remotely controlled drone crashes and cannot be recovered, the wreckage can be looted, can let someone know that they are being spied on, and pollutes the environment. Now, Lynn Rothschild of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California and her colleagues have created a quadcopter drone from materials that are almost all biological or biodegradable. The body was grown into shape using a root-like fungus called mycelium and then covered in protective sheets of cellulose soaked in a protein used by paper wasps to waterproof their nests. The electrical circuits were printed using silver nanoparticle ink. In the drone’s first test flight, the motors, propellers, battery, and control systems were the only non-biodegradable parts. The team’s next step is to grow biological sensors for the craft.
