Russian experts have found batteries used by the US space agency in the Mars program while reverse engineering captured Ukrainian drones, Dmitry Kuzyakin, general director of the Center for Development of Integrated Unmanned Solutions, told Sputnik.
The center deals with the full cycle of first-person view (FPV) combat applications, from drone production to training and piloting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
"The first FPV drone we acquired had a battery similar to the one used by the US in NASA's Mars mission. It seems that Ukraine assembled FPV drones with its US 'partners', and these batteries were installed in order to use the drones in winter with severe negative temperatures," Kuzyakin explained.
He also said that these batteries are extremely expensive to use in such makeshift devices.
The developer added that aluminum alloys similar to those used in the US space program were also found in the captured Ukrainian drones. According to Kuzyakin, the special properties of such an alloy are crucial in space, but useless in an ordinary drone.
“It [aluminum alloy] consists of 70% ordinary alloys and 30% various homeopathic additives that provide aluminum stability in a vacuum. Why does an FPV drone need such aluminum?" Kuzyakin wondered.
However, thanks to such a "filling", Russian engineers can obtain "a lot of useful information" and data, Kuzyakin concluded.