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Oil-Spotting Blimp Arrives In the Gulf
GAMP writes "A Navy blimp to assist oil skimming operations will be arriving to the Gulf Coast Wednesday evening, according to the Unified Command Joint Information Center. 'The airship will operate relatively close to shore, primarily supporting skimmers to maximize their effectiveness,' said US Coast Guard Capt. Kevin Sareault."
That's nice, but will reporters be allowed on board?
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
Obama springs into action!!!!
In other news, a cigar-smoking middle aged man wearing pilots goggles and brandishing a halberd was arrested early this evening. Police say that they had to arrest the man after complaints of him swinging his weapon around in the street shouting "they stole my baby!"
This story and more at 11:00 PM.
Why does this seem like something that would appear in the plot of a Simpsons or South Park episode?
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
What happens if the blimp comes within 65 vertical feet of a beach when passing over it? Is everyone there guilty of a class D felony?
But is this really an effective use of taxpayer money?
If you can read this, it means that I bothered to log in.
Heck, the spill has been going on for over seventy days! What is wrong with the 'mighty' USA?
The article doesn't mention that this is the MZ-3. It is currently assigned to Scientific Development Squadron ONE (VXS-1), based out of NAS Patuxent River, MD. It was being tested in Yuma, AZ until its recent assignment to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill cleanup efforts. Its crew are contractors from Integrated Systems Solutions, Inc. -- they have a website, but it's too crappy to bother linking here. The crew includes Commanding Officer Cmdr. Chris Janke, Burt Race, a retired Navy pilot, Chief Pilot Peter Buckley, second pilot Russell Mills, and up to five other positions available.
For those of you wondering if reporters are going to be on this blimp -- probably not. It is not a civilian vessel, and space for personnel is at a premium. As well, as a fully vetted and operating Navy aircraft, it also contains military communications equipment. Very little in the way of surveillance equipment has been fitted on the airframe; Weight is a major concern for such a craft.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
I mean, spotting the oil is nice, but burning it away with lasers would be way cooler.
Obama's doing a great job! At this very moment, Sir Paul McCartney is readying his Yellow Submarine to help clean up the mess the BP Meanies left to wash up on the shores of Obamaland.
WE CAN DO IT!!
"It's in the water," says the blimp.
Well hey I feel a lot safer now, doesn't every one else?
You might be a redneck faggot.
The airship is more economical and can stay in the air for 12 hours, longer than helicopters or airplanes already in use,
so the Also,
The airship is more economical and can stay in the air for 12 hours
What?!? What's preventing it to stay longer?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
To see the oil. Its all over the shore. Waste of money.
If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it.
It leaks oil -among other things- like a sieve.
"The slow-moving airship will be arriving at the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi after more than a month of travel from Yuma, Arizona where it's based."
Couldn't they pack it up and fly or drive it there? Guess there wasn't any hurry to get there.
Oh well, sending a blimp to make more oil spots in the gulf won't make matters significantly worse I suppose. I think BP will applaud this effort -- at least now they can blame the government for creating all the oil spots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6_AwzuK0zU
at this thing...it doesnt really exude confidence
why aren't we sending these? with much more advanced optics and sensor systems, and the ability to operate autonomously
Good people go to bed earlier.
Why does this seem like something that would appear in the plot of a Simpsons or South Park episode?
Because they're not really trying to clean up the oil leak.
They've rejected the best available technology for cleaning up the oil because the water it returns, in situ, isn't quite pure enough for EPA regulations.
Instead, they're attempting to pump the Gulf of Mexico into ships and cart it to land, for storage and later processing.
It's so absurd it can't be due to ignorance.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
What if the blimp get flamed up and crash to the oil spill? Disaster!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
But is this really an effective use of taxpayer money?
Blimps and airships are pretty cheap to operate for most things. The Navy has a long history with LTA (lighter than air) craft, using them more prominently than perhaps even Imperial Germany, who really popularized the Zeppelin. The Navy had something of a golden age with their airships, with 4 of their Zeppelin-class airships being commissioned as ships of the line, the same as surface warships. Two of them ... the USS Akron and the USS Macon were actually Zeppelin aircraft carriers. They both carried a squadron of Curtis Sparrowhawk fighter planes, which would attach to the mothership via a skyhook. The carriers even had a hangar bay inside the airships, and at 800 ft long, there were nearly as long as modern surface supercarriers.
End the end, it wasn't expense that ended the age of Navy airships, it was safety. Most were destroyed in catastrophic accidents, and they were vulnerable to sudden, violent weather. Billy Mitchell... arguably father of the modern air force... was court martialed in part because he used the airship crashes in his publicity campaign against Naval aviation (which has left a legacy of bitterness between the two services that continues to this day).
The Navy continued to use LTA craft into WWII though, especially as spotter balloons, and even continued to use smaller airships into the 50's for things like anti-submarine patrol. I'm rather glad to see them get back into the LTA business, as you can do a lot with airships very inexpensively. Make them remote-piloted drones, and you can send them up for days at a time as radar AEW craft, reconnaissance craft, or even as remote weapons platforms. Airships... both manned and unmanned.... probably still make more sense as anti-sub platforms than land-based fixed wing aircraft.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
The fuel gets close to running out after 12 hours. It's really bad news to run out of fuel. Without engine power you have no steerageway on the airship and she is out of control vertically and horizontally. Also there is then no way to control the envelope pressure, which has to be kept between delicate limits. Little things like that. There is no real provision for crew rest, meals, and such like. This is a really tiny airship. It is only about 1/40 the size of the Hindenburg.
The largest airships of the 1930s, including the US Navy Akron and Macon, could stay out for one week without refuelling. They had proper facilities for the crew, who stood watches like on a surface ship.
It bears pointing out that the cane toad was imported from outside the Australian ecosystem, whereupon it became a runaway success as an invasive species. Meanwhile, the bacteria mentioned here are already present as a natural part of the Gulf ecosystem, and they thus present zero risk of invasiveness.
Mind you, I'm not saying that guarantees there'll be no problems -- I certainly don't know enough to say one way or the other. But we can be reasonably sure that the oil-munching bacteria in the Gulf are safer than the cane toad, simply because they're already there.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
It appears that the unions are not oil-soluble. Perhaps if we add more detergent to the mix?
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
That saying works so well to describe American politics in large part because the nose being cut off generally belongs to someone else.
This list could go on and on, but the basic idea is that, so long as the ones making the decisions aren't actually accountable and aren't themselves directly inconvenienced, they couldn't really give a rat's ass how messy or slipshod their proposed solution might be. So long as it keeps the gravy train running, it's all good, as far as they're concerned.
Cheers,
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
A dutch marine vessel was not allowed to help during the Kathrine/New Orleans disaster.
The US government is very scared of allowing any foreign aid. The US survives on its people believing that they are the best. Seeing other countries flags displayed dealing with stuff the US itself can't dealwith could upset that.
It might get people to question whether they voted for the right guy or even worse, the right economic policiy. Nothing scares BOTH US parties more then the idea that some Americans might start think Socialism might not be totally evil.
Part of it is also the American attitude of "can do". It works when things are fine but fails when the shit hits the fan. That requires a more EU lookout "life is bleak and we are going to die horribly". Why do ALL EU countries have superior disaster equipment? Because we know we are doomed. The dutch dikes are better then the New Orleans ones because no dutch person believes god has blessed this country (From the weather he seems to be pissing on us most of the time).
What is odd that while the US goverment is always very reluctant to receive aid, they hand it out readily. When the dutch dikes did break in 1953, US helicopters were quick to arrive and start helping people.
US, learn to accept that accepting help is NOT a sign of weakness. Your children won't start smoking pot because some dutch engineers are walking your shores and thinking gay marriage is peoples own affair.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
BP plc hasn't stood for British Petroleum since at least 1998 when it merged with Amoco. In fact, there's nearly as many shares in the US as there is in the UK (39% vs 40%).
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
High powered visual software powered by geosynchronous satellites--CHECK Nuclear powered battle group that can stay at say almost indefinitely---CHECK Vertical Take-off and Landing Stealth fighter jets---------CHECK hot air balloon technology from the 19th century, wait what?!
Well, I hear they were going to have some lasers, but they're getting sued by Lucas for looking too much like some lightsaber handles he had in mind for a future movie ;)
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Yep, this Administration has been right on top of things since day 1.
How many days did it take to identify a long term, aerial, on-station presence as a good idea to coordinate efforts from above?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-7K-ZPaLa8 Check out this sea flight view of the gulf. This is what the blimp will see
http://gizmodo.com/5547548/the-gulf-disaster-video-that-bp-doesnt-want-you-to-see Maybe they should send some subs for more pics like this?
http://gizmodo.com/5542969/gulf-oil-disaster-looks-very-scary-says-astronaut Hey, we already have space pics.....the blimp is really going to help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ALAvTeRMYc&feature=related Ex Shell CEO saying "Its not going to stop"
http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions Now this is an interesting theory. The probability of course is unknown. Any thoughts from geologists who are experts on the gulf sea floor or with enough knowledge they could call themselves an expert witness, might shed some light. And, well Sarah Palin is calling for "divine intervention" on her twitter feed....damn if only she were president things would really be moving along....hah.
Real men don't need signitures!!!
Sats up there can do an even better job than the blimp, especially NASA and NSA ones we don't even know about. Blimp is publicity only...jeff
Real men don't need signitures!!!
Err, no, they can't, actually. Sats have much worse imaging capability and have interference from weather, not to mention only periodic imaging capabilities. (Either you're talking about something in geo, in which case it's quite far away, or leo, in which case it's only going to pass over the site for picture taking every so often.)
Airships are actually quite good for this sort of task.
The ringing of the division bell has begun... -PF
Hey cool! They’ve got a blimp!
Wouldn't this be a excellent test / PR for those high-endurance UAVs they're always trying to sell to the military? /.'s had stories about unmanned blimps or "stratellites" in the recent past.
Hell,
Oh, I see, there's no money for environmental monitoring, just for blowing up the brown peeples. Economic stimulus my ass.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Quick thinking there slick. Maybe in another couple months you can start sending some equipment to stop the leak.