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Solar Craft Flies Through Two Nights
An anonymous reader writes "A solar-powered, unmanned craft has flown for 54 hours — a record for both unmanned aerial vehicles and solar craft. None before has managed to store enough solar energy to fly through more than one night. There is also a video showing the 18m carbon fiber wing craft being launched."
This BBC article has good info.
It should not be a surprise that the Global Hawk record did not stand. Look at the two craft. If a global hawk hit the zephyr it probably wouldn't even notice.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Obviously solar panels feed it to maintain energy stores; however since it must store this energy in a battery of some sort, is it required that the batteries be empty when launched? If not, what's to stop someone with a major pile of pre-charged solar-rechargeable batteries from tacking one solar panel on top & calling it a solar vehicle even if it could never fully charge those during use? Not accusing these folks of doing that but just curious about how they classify solar vehicles...
digital artist, 3D animator, web designer, and otherwise technological creative type....
Depending on the time of year it wouldn't have to do that... you could have it do loops around the north or south pole at a much higher latitude and still get sunshine 24/7 (or damn near close) and not have to travel as fast as they would near the equator to keep up with the sun.