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  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Now you can't even scale Mount Everest without a drone buzzing overhead

(2022/10/14)


Video Drone maker DJI has claimed a world first by flying one of its Mavic 3 drones around the peak of Mount Everest, capturing some pretty great footage in the process.

The idea to fly a drone around the world's highest mountain was developed with the team from Chinese photography website and photographer organization 8KRAW, which took the Mavic 3 to the 8,849 metre (29,032 feet) top.

Per the Mavic 3's [1]specs , it's only able to fly up to 6,000 meters above sea level - quite a bit lower than Everest's peak. Additionally, the Mavic 3 is only rated to handle temperatures as low as -10°C (14°F), which Everest's peak [2]regularly drops below . Additionally, the drone's max wind speed resistance is 12 meters per second, which Everest wind's regularly exceed.

[3]

DJI said the quadcopter had to be customized to tolerate Everest's harsh conditions, but didn't specify what it did, and hasn't responded to our emails asking such. At the end of the day, the modified Mavic 3 climbed as high as 9,232 meters (30,289 feet) when launched from the peak, footage from which was edited down into a [4]three-minute video DJI published recently.

[5]

[6]

[7]DJI's Everest flight

According to DJI, it "developed a detailed flight plan that would allow their videographers to take the ultimate drone flight from the summit - capturing the stunning beauty of the mountain, and the surrounding views, as they've not been captured before."

[8]China to enforce social distancing on peak of Mount Everest

[9]How Wi-Fi spy drones snooped on financial firm

[10]Russian military uses Chinese drones and bots in combat, over manufacturers' protests

[11]Behold this drone-dropping rifle with two-mile range

Chinese-based DJI faced some trouble early in the Russian invasion of Ukraine when it was accused of providing drones to Russia's military, something the company [12]denied before deciding to suspend business in Russia and Ukraine. It was the first major Chinese tech company to make such a move.

While plenty of US-based corporations have left Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, DJI remains one of the few Chinese companies to halt its operations there, The Hill [13]said in May. Xiaomi and Lenovo have both announced a reduction of shipments to Russia, it added.

[14]

The DoD added DJI to a [15]blacklist of Chinese companies it said do business with the Chinese military last week, making the company ineligible for DoD contracts. The US Commerce Department has [16]also sanctioned DJI , blocking US citizens from investing in the company in late 2021. ®

Get our [17]Tech Resources



[1] https://www.dji.com/mavic-3/specs

[2] https://www.mountain-forecast.com/peaks/Mount-Everest/forecasts/8850

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y0kzPaw-CtkjJrrap7a7OAAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz9oI3B6v4c

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0kzPaw-CtkjJrrap7a7OAAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y0kzPaw-CtkjJrrap7a7OAAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zz9oI3B6v4c

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/10/mount_everest_social_distancing/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/12/drone-roof-attack/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/17/russia_weaponizes_chinese_drones_robots/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/27/ukraine_drone_rifle/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/29/dji_denies_aiding_russia/

[13] https://thehill.com/policy/international/3479807-chinese-tech-firms-pull-out-of-russia-report/

[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y0kzPaw-CtkjJrrap7a7OAAAAMQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[15] https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3180636/dod-releases-list-of-peoples-republic-of-china-prc-military-companies-in-accord/

[16] https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-adds-more-chinese-firms-restricted-entity-list-commerce-2021-12-16/

[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Not enough people in those shots

RSW

Should be a lot more people in those shots trying to get to the top?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-48401491

Re: Not enough people in those shots

Little Mouse

The main climbing season is very short. Literally just a couple of months long. I guess they just avoided the rush hour.

But going off-season would presumably be more difficult for drones too (colder, harsher conditions, less daylight, etc)

"No chance of any peace, not even at 8,900 metres"

Mike 137

No chance of any peace almost anywhere accessible. One of my hobbies is wildlife sound recording, but with the advent of electric cars a hitch has emerged and is getting ever more significant. Distant IC traffic presents a fairly stable low frequency noise almost entirely below about 120 Hz ( a mixture of tyre noise and engine noise) with very weak harmonics that can usually be masked. Distant electric vehicles present in addition to the low frequency tyre noise a quite broad band of harmonic rich noise in the 400-1200 Hz band - right in the middle of wanted natural sounds, so they're well nigh impossible to filter out in the absence of very sophisticated (and therefore expensive) tech.

Looks nice

Dinanziame

Gave me the chills. Though maybe because I thought how cold it must be up there.

Re: Looks nice

A Non e-mouse

Were they multiplying?

Re: Looks nice

MiguelC

The first image of the 'Top of the World' is breathtaking

I'd offer them a pint, but a nice cuppa would probably feel better in those conditions

Re: Looks nice

A Non e-mouse

Due to the altitude, it's impossible to make a good cuppa up there as the boiling point of water is too low.

The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.