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By crossing airships with airplanes, Solar Ship is creating craft that can carry heavy loads long distances with a tiny carbon footprint. Filled with helium, they soak up rays from the sun to provide the energy for forward motion and fulfill its original design challenge – carry 1,000 kilograms (2,205 lbs) of payload 1,000 kilometers (621.4 miles).
Helium leaks out and is on its way to being super expensive. The government release of our stocks of the gas at bargain basement prices is criminal. Any descendants will look back and curse us for giving away a non-renewable resource.
By crossing airships with airplanes, Solar Ship is creating craft that can carry heavy loads long distances with a tiny carbon footprint. Filled with helium, they soak up rays from the sun to provide the energy for forward motion
The concept is pretty amazing. Nice to see that someone is trying to work out transport solutions that do not require gas and oil to run.
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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That's going to be an enormous blimp...
For a non-rigid airship filled with helium it will need to be at least 1,000 cubic meters, which isn't accounting for the weight of any photovoltaics.
While it may be nice to see someone trying to do something challenging and test the limits of new power sources, the drawbacks and economics of lighter-than-air transport are pretty well understood and I'm not sure that the wheel has been re-invented in a meaningful way here...
I wish they'ed come up with a low flying solar blimp you could live in. Then you wouldn't have to worry about owning property or renting. It's better than a boat because you don't have to worry about rough seas or docking fees. You could hover it off the coast somewhere and when you need supplies you could lower an inflatable raft with a little outboard and motor to shore for supplies. It would be a nice life.
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