Building a drone for gas giant flight: Lightning considerations

A previous question's answer established that naturally occurring positrons could be gathered through positron-emitting isotopes. I've started looking into means that these isotopes could be gathered and utilized.

The original approach involved mining for potassium-40, but its million year half life and low rate of positron emission was too slow to be useful. Attempts to find a means to accelerate/manipulate this decay are not looking too promising, so I started looking into a new approach.

The other isotope that was brought up was nitrogen-13 which can be created by lightning strikes in a nitrogen atmosphere.

I came up with the idea of setting loose a swarm of drones that would chase down lightning strikes and attempt to scoop up as much nitrogen-13 as they can and begin isolating positrons from it as they fill up while dumping the unwanted gasses for propulsion. Eventually, they would take their stored isotopes and positrons back to a tanker or platform in orbit.

I'm intending for these drones to be deployed on gas giants that have particularly high lightning activity, which brings me to the first concern.

Assuming the drone was both aerodynamic and durable enough to fly in a gas giant's dense atmosphere without being crushed by that same atmosphere, would the the same lightning it is chasing down for nitrogen-13 be likely to directly strike the drone as well?

If lightning striking the drone were a concern, what could be done to ensure it is not the ideal path for lightning or that it could survive the lightning strike?

posted almost 7 years ago

Arvex‭

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