Slashdot Mirror
Around the World in a Solar Plane
Coati writes "Bertrand Piccard, the guy that flew around the world in a balloon, wants to do it again, this time in a solar plane."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
Guess he won't be flying at night.....
The opinions expressed here are not mine, but those of these dang voices in my head.
Hope he stays above the clouds :-)
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
he'd better not fly over the UK then.. no sun here ;)
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
helo wat is ur asl ?
So after a few years of r&D half a dozen custom built protoypes (to be discarded as non-biodegradable junk) and other discarded parts they can have something that probably took more energy to make than a small town uses in a year, but then fly it around the world using only energy from the sun...I suppose it will be a cool engineering achievement.
.Sig. temporarily unavailable due to terminal lack of inventivness
So, assuming he has clear skies for most of that trip, no problem. However, if he hits "inclement weather," how much energy does that plane store up before it runs out of juice? Or can it be assumed he will be above the cloud cover for the whole trip? And, is it assumed the trip is continuous or will he be able to stop at "jump points" (this makes more sense for obvious reasons). If he can stop even briefly, this idea becomes a lot more feasible.
Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!
All he needs is a really big bungee cord...
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
Is there any scientific value to going around the world in a balloon
Is there any scientific value to space exploration?
I'm guessing that circumnavigation of Earth in a particular class of vehicle acts as a sort of proof of concept to the vehicle's operation. Engineers at transportation industry companies usually want to work with ideas that somebody else has tested in the field, and this is where the wealthy people's pastimes come in.
Obliugatory Piccard joke.....
Piccard: To boldy go, where no ma- (turbulence) Number 1, why are we rapidly descending?
Riker: It seems to be a solar eclipse sir
Piccard: All hands embrace for impact!
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
People can stay in the air for several days in a glider. They use upward currents to gain height. You know, fly over a desert in the day, and over a forest at night.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
We need the wood.
Spare me the "any mention of ecology gets a lukewarm response from the public because their comfortable existence is threatened".
The problem with many so-called 'ecologists' is that they frame everything in terms of 'saving the Planet'. Here's a clue - the Planet will survive long after we're all dead. The Earth will be there when the sun becomes a red giant and eats it. We shouldn't save the Planet, we should save ourselves. Does the Earth 'care' if biodiversity diminishes due to pollution? Does the Earth 'care' if the light pollution causes algae disruptions in the Great Lakes? No. but we should.
This project is great at raising visibility and research focus in the fields of energy capture, storage and motor design, but these folks aren't the Messaihs.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
If you had clicked the article link, you'd see a picture of it flying at dusk, right on the front page!.
Also from the press release
The Solar Impulse aircraft will have an extremely long wingspan, advanced aerodynamics, and a revolutionary structure in order to capture and store sufficient solar energy during the day and to be able to maintain itself in flight during the night.
and you run and you run to catch up with the sun but its sinking, only to come up behind you again...
Given that TNG is set around 2380, wouldn't that be great great great great great great great great great great grand-father? :)
Any trig gurus please improve this for me:
Let T = radius of the earth
Let L = given angle of latitutde
Let X = "altitude" above the center of the earth to escape the earth's shadow
Let A = altitude above the earth's surface.
Now assume it is an equinox (thus the sun's rays are tangent to the earth at the poles), we want to find:
Something tells me there's a way to simplify that but I can't remember it.
For days other than an equinox, recalculate a new lattitude from the point of tangency of the Sun's rays to the earth and convert to standard lattitude
Disclaimer: this doesn't entirely work because the sun's rays are not parallel, but it should be pretty close.
All's true that is mistrusted
I would assume that the pilot would fly a zigziag course. During the day, they would fly westward to stay in the sun as long as possible. During the night, they would fly eastward to meet the dawn as soon as possible.
I also wonder if they might choose a route that flies over the upwelling of air at the equatorial convergence zone. It might be rough, but those air currents could help them stay aloft during the night.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
They should go around the world in a solar-powered submarine.
- They should be made to sign a "no extreme measures or rescue-tation attempts" paper before leaving.
Right. I can't remember how often that guy had to be rescued with his balloon but i do remember that he needed a few tries and almost died more than once.Any bets on how many tries it will take him this time?
To me, this is Jackass for rich people.
Perhaps we have a right to wipe humanity of the face of the planet, perhaps we don't. But I don't see how we have a right to wipe out all the countless other species and to poison the earth, sky and the seas.
To use a famous quote, this is a beautiful planet, it's a miracle and we're destroying it.
(Cue a dozen posts from people who think environmental awareness is for only for hippies high as a kite.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Auguste Piccard was a Swiss while J-L Picard is a Scot actor playing a French dude. I am certain the Star Trek NG writers had in the back of their mind that A. Piccard was a famous explorer, and they wanted their J-L Picard to be more the Swiss Explorer than the Captain Cook-like J.T. Kirk. If they knew about A. Piccard, they may have changed the name and nationality to make it simpler for TV viewers.
Cook definitely was the inspiration for Kirk, both as an explorer and as a shoot-from-the-hip military man, while I think that J-L Picard was meant to be more science and less militarism. Remember, STNG was kind of like a Total Quality Management, Fan Focus Group, New and Improved Star Trek, and one of the criticisms of Star Trek was putting the captain in harms way all the time. Captain Cook put himself in harms way and was killed in a skirmish in Hawaii, but some dweeb critics thought the captain of the Enterprise was too important to get into hand-to-hand combat with aliens every other episode, so Picard was supposed to be kept safe by Worf, and Riker was supposed to tangle with the aliens and get beat up. But as episodes went on, we learned from Q that Picard had an artificial heart because he was more hot-headed than he let on, and by the time he has turned into Locutus, he was fighting aliens and proved to be a scrappier fighter than Kirk (or the time he single-handedly thwarted a hijacking of the Enterprise by terrorists when the crew was gone on leave in a thin ripoff of Stephen Segal's "Under Siege" -- while Navy Seal Segal was "only a cook" because he was busted in rank, Captain Picard was "only the barber" because I suppose with his shaved head that was real funny).
NASA's little darling solar plane flew at about 90,000 feet, well above any potential cloud cover. You can assume that these guys are planning on the same strategy. But if you plan to send a manned flight up to 90k feet, doesn't that raise a whole slew of logistics questions? i.e., the amount of oxygen needed, the weight ratios to follow, etc...
Who is Jean-Luc Piccard anyway?
Bertrand is the son of Jacques and the grand-son of Auguste. See his biography.
"His grandfather, Auguste (1884-1962), [...invented] the principle of the pressurised cockpit and the stratospheric balloon. In making the first exploration of the stratosphere [...] in 1931, he [...] became the first man to see the curvature of the earth's surface with his own eyes."
"His father, Jacques, continued the work of Auguste [...] the world's deepest dive (-10916 metres in the Marianas Trench, the greatest known ocean depth)."
The point of this kind of research is to improve technology. The result is more efficient solar cells and batteries, the kind of tech which will improve thousands of things.
Its not just some guy with loads of money who thinks it would be cool to fly around the world, it is serious research into several important fields. The kind of research that without rich enthusiasts wouldn't get done.
I agree that people should be more willing to spread the wealth, which is why I applaud the "give so much a month" approach charities use, and wish more people would do it. Who would notice 10 pounds a month missing from their salary of thousands? If everyone gave an amount they could afford without even noticing then a hell of a lot of people could be helped.
soundtrack: "don't let the sun go down on me" by Elton John
Those interested in efficient flight should read about Paul MacCready (and many others) who have been involved in the American human/solar powered flight movement: More with Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight.
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
The EPFL explains much more about the technological aspects. It's in French of course: here.
:-), they also have nice pictures
But for those who cannot read
One technological aspect is that by flying very high, they can take advantage of the cold (-55C), which can improve efficiency of electro-magnetic motors.
There are other interesting bits. I guess the page will be translated in English in a few days. (Forget computer translations, unless you want a cheap laugh)
Wow are you dumb!
If the sun goes out he'll just use the moon!!
The Helios Solar Airplane probably could have flown around the world. But with a cruising speed of only about 40 km/hr it would have taken 1000 hours (41 days). Such a long duration flight is fine for an unmanned aircraft, but poses severe challenges for manned flight. Carrying weeks worth of food, water, and oxygen represents additional payload that such a vehicle can ill afford. Onboard recycling/extraction systems could reduce the need for consumables, but they add weight also.
..... SIGH!
But without a person in the cockpit, the venture won't get much media attention. And without media attention, the project won't attract much sponsorship.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Right now, using solar power sounds like a good idea. It's a renewable and non polluting source of energy.
But if we have learned anything about excessive energy use from the past, we should proceed with caution. What will happen when the whole world is powered by solar power? Think of it, all this energy from the sun that would normally heat the earth would now go towards generating electricity. This would probably lead to a global chilling which is not a good thing.
I think we should either stay dependant on fossil fuels for now, or even increase our consumption of them to counter the effects of global chilling in the future with more global warming now.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
December 1986 this was done with fuel
Why can't this now be done with solar cells and high-density batteries?
I would have more faith in this project if it was being done by somebody else.
Stay aloft for weeks at a time? sure why not. Just expand on this idea
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
What I object to are the people that do some damned-fool stunt like travelling to the north pole by pogo-stick, then calling for help when they get snow in their boot. Suddenly a huge effort to save them is made at great expense and risk to other people. Launching a search and rescue effort shouldn't like calling the AAA. If you want to do something dangerous, do it. Or do not and die.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
It's called 'withheld income tax'.
I would challenge you to find anyone who doesn't notice the amount of income tax they pay.
Just repeat after me:
"It's all about money."
"It's all about money."
I have a 2kw solar system on my roof so I'm certainly not anti-renewable energy. I just think people should realize that the problem has nothing to do with technology or people's desire maintain their lifestyle because it's not even allowed to come down to that. It's about greed and established infrastructure. I don't think it's any coincidence that the major solar panel manufacturers are all owned by oil companies. I can't prove it but it doesn't seem unreasonable to assume that they are controlling the price of solar panels to keep the usage at a level that is comfortable to them.
We have reached the level of corporate control in this world that is reminicent of the movie Rollerball (for those of you old enough to remember it). The U.S. courts and the EU and make a good show of protecting their citizens but corporations don't need to do anything illegal to get what they want. With enough money and lawyers you can blunt any reform that comes down the pike. Movies have to be more dramatic but the truth is much more banal.
I'm glad Mr. Piccard has the ability to put together these inspiring projects. I wish he'd invite me to be on his team. I just don't think for a minute that it's going to address the real problem.
"I tried solar power but it just made my skin peel. I'll stick with food, thank you."
"Meaningless!, Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless!"
after reading the website, it's clear to me that if Piccard were to make an ego powered craft he could probably land on the Moon.
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
But without a person in the cockpit, the venture won't get much media attention. And without media attention, the project won't attract much sponsorship. ..... SIGH!
:-)
Exactly.
And being the "person in the cockpit", and attracting sponsorship is what the latest Piccard seems to be good at.
And he is nicely grateful to his sponsors too. On the contacts page of the site, the link to his own site (www.bertrandpiccard.com) actually points to his sponsors (www.breitling.com)! Whether it is accidental, intentional, or a nice meaning-ladden lapsus is open to speculations
In different times, the scientist could end up getting the media's attention, but now the work has been "Taylorized": one does the acting, and others do the real (ineteresting but not so media-flashy) work. In this case, it's the Lausanne university. In his previous achievement, it was mainly meteorologists sitting in front of boring computer screens.
Nevertheless, the project sounds exciting.