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Giant Survival Ball Will Help Explorer Survive a Year On an Iceberg
HughPickens.com writes: Ben Yeager reports in Outside Magazine that Italian explorer Alex Bellini plans to travel to Greenland's west coast, pick an iceberg, and live on it for a year as it melts out in the Atlantic. It's a precarious idea. Bellini will be completely isolated, and his adopted dwelling is liable to roll or fall apart at any moment, thrusting him into the icy sea or crushing him under hundreds of tons of ice. His solution: an indestructible survival capsule built by an aeronautics company that specializes in tsunami-proof escape pods. "I knew since the beginning I needed to minimize the risk. An iceberg can flip over, and those events can be catastrophic." Bellini plans to use a lightweight, indestructible floating capsules, or "personal safety systems" made from aircraft-grade aluminum in what's called a continuous monocoque structure, an interlocking frame of aluminum spars that evenly distribute force, underneath a brightly painted and highly visible aluminum shell. The inner frame can be stationary or mounted on roller balls so it rotates, allowing the passengers to remain upright at all times.
Aeronautical engineer Julian Sharpe, founder of Survival Capsule, got the idea for his capsules after the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. He believes fewer people would have died had some sort of escape pod existed. Sharpe hopes the products will be universal—in schools, retirement homes, and private residences, anywhere there is severe weather. The product appeals to Bellini because it's strong enough to survive a storm at sea or getting crushed between two icebergs. Bellini will spend almost all of his time in the capsule with the hatch closed, which will pose major challenges because he'll have to stay active without venturing out onto a slippery, unstable iceberg. If it flips, he'll have no time to react. "Any step away from [the iceberg] will be in unknown territory," says Bellini. "You want to stretch your body. But then you risk your life."
Aeronautical engineer Julian Sharpe, founder of Survival Capsule, got the idea for his capsules after the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. He believes fewer people would have died had some sort of escape pod existed. Sharpe hopes the products will be universal—in schools, retirement homes, and private residences, anywhere there is severe weather. The product appeals to Bellini because it's strong enough to survive a storm at sea or getting crushed between two icebergs. Bellini will spend almost all of his time in the capsule with the hatch closed, which will pose major challenges because he'll have to stay active without venturing out onto a slippery, unstable iceberg. If it flips, he'll have no time to react. "Any step away from [the iceberg] will be in unknown territory," says Bellini. "You want to stretch your body. But then you risk your life."
going over Niagra Falls in a barrel.
I think James Bond beat him to it....will that ball come with a foxy KGB agent inside?
Aeronautical engineer Julian Sharpe, founder of Survival Capsule, got the idea for his capsules after the 2004 Indonesian tsunami. He believes fewer people would have died had some sort of escape pod existed
What the Indonesians needed was a warning, not an escape pod. With no warning, the pods are useless. With warning, just get out of the path.
He makes a living by consulting, motivational speaking, and selling books; this sort of thing is advertising for his brand. Just doing it without bothering to tell anyone would rather defeat the purpose.
Sharpe hopes the products will be universal—in schools, retirement homes, and private residences, anywhere there is severe weather.
According to the website they sell capsules for 2-10 people. Can you imagine how big a 10 person capsule would be? For a small school of 300 kids you'd still need 30 of them! Even if you had the money where does he expect people to store them?! It doesn't even make sense for paranoid families.
If you're that worried about the weather then you won't stick around for a bad hurricane (or you'd have a safe room built in).
An earthquake won't give you time to reach the survival ball.
Yes it might be useful for the tsunami they focus on, but those are incredibly rare and inconsistent, and if people were that worried they'd already be buying cheap air tanks and respirators.
On the other hand a good usage might be what they're doing now, using it as a lifeboat (assuming the crew is small enough). If a really severe storm comes up and the ship is going down then an impregnable capsule where you can wait for rescue sounds appealing.
Am I missing something or is that the only real market for their product? Their obsession with tsunamis just strikes me as bizarre.
I stole this Sig
> He makes a living by consulting, motivational speaking...
Cool, then it's a big step forward for humanity if he succeeds. A smaller one if he doesn't.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Hi, all you citizens making an annual salary of $100 American eeking out a living on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Sign here to authorize delivery of your $50,000 pod you can use to escape that 1 in a 100 year event!
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
It really does seem like an odd 'adventure'. The guy is basically sentencing himself to a year in solitary confinement, with the added bonus of possible catastrophe at any moment. No indication from the article that he's doing it to raise awareness of global warming, or to raise money for some cause, or even to gain some scientific knowledge. I can't even imagine a particularly good book deal coming out of this.
I think he could accomplish as much by spending a year in a Schrodinger box.
RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
This. He could just grab a kilo of meth and get arrested. He'd have his year(s) of solitary confinement, the potential for a catastrophe or two, better medical care and a good buzz.
What's not to like?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Bellini will spend almost all of his time in the capsule with the hatch closed, ...
So, the iceberg part is actually irrelevant. The ball could be anywhere.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .