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Feels very much like the future is finally here. We're accelerating
Now make it cool looking like a dragon or silly like whale or ufo
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I wonder how it compares in size to a traditional windmill of similar power, and how densely they hope to pack them (units per acre). I bet you can barely notice it 2 km away even though it's almost 200 feet long
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I'm curious about helium leakage from the envelope and how that will be managed. I can understand why they chose helium to lift it, but it is notoriously hard to contain. If this scales up, they are going to need a constant source to replenish losses.
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makes sense over deserts and large bodies of water, ideally they'd find ways to redirect lightning strikes, or be able to channel them and use hydrogen instead of helium - maybe individual H bags enclosed within a larger envelope of the lighter inert
Interesting but i have a number of serious doubts about this ever becoming a viable technology. Foremost of which is what happens if the helium container bursts? It would result in a massive building-size object crashing to the ground anywhere within a 6500 foot radius of the ground tether point.
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There is so many problems with that concept: What do you do when there is a strong storm? What happens if lightning strikes? How do you do maintenance and how pricey is that? How do you get the power down properly? You also have to keep a ton of space clear from buildings/people if that thing somehow starts flying away/down...
Normal wind turbines can likely do a better more efficient job - at a fraction of the cost of this public relations stunt.
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They got the idea from Big Hero Six.
8 comments in c/science@beehaw.org view that post
Is it able to fly in high winds?
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Hell yeah can't wait to fly my own powerkite.
How often does it need to be reached with helium?
I imagine it has some portion of leakage through the material and it's a lot of friggen helium, which is already in dwindling supply.
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