How a 3D-Printed Rocket With Wire Triggers Lightning
Researchers replicated the rocket-and-wire method to trigger cloud-to-ground lightning under strongly charged conditions: a remotely ignited 3D-printed rocket with a copper wire created a plasma channel and multiple strokes, a second ground strike caused by wind, and the hardware was destroyed; no fulgurite formed but the ground fractured from flash‑boiled water. Drones are being explored as a reusable trigger, and many questions about lightning formation remain.