The new Chinese drones can be frightening tools.

"Scientists have addressed most of the technical challenges related to the new laser drone. "(Representational image) (InterestingEngineering, China: Drones equipped with new tech to emit metal-cutting laser beams)

The new Chinse nasty drone creates metal-cutting laser beams. That kind of drone can be a real game changer in the military and civil work. The metal-cutting lasers can destroy many targets. But they can also used in civil work like cutting metals in demolition sites. Those drones can also bulldoze the metals away from the accident zone. 

But as we know. Metal-cutting drones are multi-use equipment. The same drone can cut the cannon tubes. Aim their metal-cutting lasers at ammunition dumps or communication antennas. They can cut airplane wings and cut power lines. Those drones are perfect tools for assassination missions. High-power carbon monoxide lasers are dangerous tools in the wrong hands. 

"An illustration of China's secretive Shenlong space plane in orbit. (Image credit: Erik Simonsen via Getty Images)" (LiveScience, China's secret space plane has released another unknown object over Earth)

Sources: LiveScience and Gizmodo

In December 2023 and July 2024. The Chinese top secret miniature shuttle Shenlong released so-called wingman objects. Those objects can be the transportation and return tanks for quadcopters that can make many missions on the battlefield and other missions. The satellite-controlled quadcopters can be released into the atmosphere and then the return capsule releases those quadcopters at the right altitude. 

The Chinese shuttle orbiter can drop those drones to operational areas. It's possible. The small silent or passive objects near the Chinese miniature shuttle were the transportation capsules for those quadcopters. The nuclear isotope batteries make those drones capable even of intercontinental operations. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) is a tool that gives those drones even years of operational ability. And that gives those drones the capacity to travel all around the Earth. 

The power of those lasers can be enormous. In comparison to their size, multiple drones aim their lasers at one point. The system can also use the lead ray. Which is more powerful than the laser rays that other drones transmit into it. 

That system works like crossing water flows. The more powerful laser ray pulls other laser rays with it. That thing means that the system that uses quite small lasers can create quite powerful laser beams by connecting multiple laser beams together. The system looks like a little bit of a Death Star's laser system. 

The metal-cutting drones can cut holes into the submarine's pressure hulls and they can make damage to rockets. The thing that makes those drones problematic is that they can also have a role in civil work. In some visions, the drones have 3D printing systems that can make metal structures. Lasers can used to melt metal wire for the system. 

And they can be used to finish the layers. It's possible that in the futuristic shipyards, those quadcopters can build even large-scale structures. The thing is that those laser drones are the tools that can operate even on other planets. The drone swarms with artificial intelligence can be used for many purposes. But. Those laser drones can be the tool that can destroy many high-priority targets. 

https://gizmodo.com/china-shenlong-space-plane-6-mystery-objects-in-orbit-1851111929

https://interestingengineering.com/military/drones-equipped-with-metal-cutting-laser

https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/chinas-secret-space-plane-has-released-another-unknown-object-over-earth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

Drones have new missions. From Jupiter's moons to a depth of oceans.

"In the Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers (SWIM) concept, illustrated here, dozens of small robots would descend through the icy shell of a distant moon via a cryobot – depicted at left – to the ocean below. The project has received funding from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech" (ScitechDaily, Could NASA’s Tiny Robots Discover Life on Europa?)

The most impressive mission for drones or independently operating miniature submarines will be the search for life from Jupiter's moon Europa. The thing is that also two other large moons, Ganymede and Callisto could have similar oceans under their icy surfaces. 

And the third Galilean moon, Io has sulfur volcanoes that are also interesting geological objects. But the main object for that mission could be Europa, the icy moon with icy geysers. The probe can slip the small submarine into those geysers and maybe they can reach the ocean under that icy surface. The done can communicate with the surface unit by using sonars. 

"After completing testing, the Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) payload resides in the cryogenic thermal vacuum chamber at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Naval Center for Space Technology in Washington, D.C. Oct. 8, 2024. Once on-orbit, the RSGS payload will inspect and service satellites in geosynchronous orbit. Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Sarah Peterson" (ScitechDaily, DARPA’s Robots to the Rescue: Transforming Satellite Maintenance in Space)

Large-size drone swarms can cover large areas under the icy surface. They can have only a limited number of sensors. But those drones make sensor fusion. And the drone swarm behaves like one bigger platform. This means. Those drones can carry similar sensors. As one large probe or aircraft. But the difference is that those sensors are under different independently operating bodies. And if one of those drones is gone, that doesn't make the failure to the entire mission.  

And that nuclear-powered unit will find a strange water world that is interesting even if there are no living organisms. But those small, long-lasting, independently operating drones can also have missions on Earth. The small AI-controlled drones can also operate in icy lakes under the Antarctean and Greenland icy shells. Things like closed caves and underwater water routes can also be places. That those drones can map. 

"In this illustration, a NASA space exploration concept called Probe using Radioisotopes for Icy Moons Exploration, or PRIME, is depicted being deployed from a lander on the frozen surface of an ocean world. The nuclear-powered probe, also called a cryobot, glows red in the subsurface ocean while connected via a communications tether to a lander miles above on the icy crust. Wedge-shaped, cellphone-size robots – another concept, called Sensing With Independent Micro-Swimmers, or SWIM – are seen traveling off underwater to conduct science beyond the heat of the probe. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech" (ScitechDaily, Could NASA’s Tiny Robots Discover Life on Europa?)

They can collect information about the closed ecosystems. That can be isolated even for thousands of years. But the same systems. That can map and research insects. Also, can collect data from other things. Drones can collect information about underwater systems like submarines. The new radar systems can follow underwater acoustic communication. The same systems can also search for information from the targeted people's discussions. 

The radars can search for things like pressure waves from air or water. And they can used to record the things that people say. Water carries sound at a very long distance. And the system that can measure the oscillation of the water surface can break the privacy of people, who are not careful. The submarine that travels in the water lines can eavesdrop on people in their houses and even the army headquarters. 

The new innovative robots can act as maintenance missions for spacecraft. They could repair the unmanned satellites and probes if they face problems. The repairing robot is the tool that can make the things like large-size, nuclear-powered drones more effective. They can be sure that the expensive system can fulfill its mission.  But similar robots can also fix other underwater drones and structures. The undersea robot can also make it possible to return unmanned systems that return from intelligence or strike missions. 

 https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/eavesdropping-underwater-messge-transmission

https://scitechdaily.com/could-nasas-tiny-robots-discover-life-on-europa/

https://scitechdaily.com/darpas-robots-to-the-rescue-transforming-satellite-maintenance-in-space/