[GRASSLIST:2140] GRASS and elevation data

[Robert P. Goldman]

I am very new to Grass and am trying to figure out whether it can help
me with a particular problem.  I would like to be able to take an
elevation map and make queries to it about the maximum altitude along
a line segment.  I'd like to do this to help in an application for
planning travel by a small robotic air vehicle.  I.e., I'd like to
know what is the minimum altitude at which the vehicle can safely fly
over a particular segment.

I was wondering:

1.  is this something GRASS can easily do?

2.  what's the best mechanism for doing this?  Should I be doing
    something directly through GRASS (i.e., invoking a particular
    grass command), or should I be using GRASS to stuff elevation data
    into a database and using a database query?

I apologize for these very naive questions.  I have spent a fair
amount of time wading through GRASS web pages without finding an
obvious answer to the question, perhaps since most of the applications
seem aimed at the production of some visualizable product like a map
or a map layer.

Many thanks