4 ms·

If you want source material, it's a paper that was published in Nature in November (abstract at [0]) including video [1] and full system parameters [2]. It wei

If you want source material, it's a paper that was published in Nature in November (abstract at [0]) including video [1] and full system parameters [2]. It weighs 2.45 kg and has a wingspan of 5m. It flew multiple times and the distance flown / total time time in the air was limited by the size of the hangar that was used for the flight trials, not the ion drive. [0] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9 [1] https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41586-018-0707-9/MediaObjects/41586_2018_707_MOESM1_ESM.mp4 https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs415... [2] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9/tables/1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0707-9/tables/1

superkuh 8y ago
At 6.25 N/kW it's not going to be flying for very long in terms of duration. It's a toy concept that's neat. The real accomplishment here is the design of the very low mass high voltage inverter. That's some serious engineering.
- rhacker 8y ago
  So there's nothing in the design that can be done at scale that's useful here? I'm not trying to nit-pick, but are you saying none of the design (except for the power supply) is novel or useful?
  - superkuh 8y ago
    Exactly. Electrostatic lifters have been around forever. I even made one with a neon sign transformer back in the late 90s. But my power supply was literally heavy iron and with wall current connected to the balsa/foil craft with very light magnet wire. Making the electrical energy storage and high power HV generation light enough is no small feat. That's what should be celebrated here.
    - DavidSJ 8y ago
      Could the energy be beamed from the surface, like a trolleybus powered by power lines?
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago
  > 6.25 N/kW I wonder what the energy density of a NASA nuclear power plant is.
  - Boxxed 8y ago
    The radioisotope power plants? Very, very low. I think they output a few hundred watts of power. They're mostly used because they're very reliable and consistent over a long period of time.

superkuh 8y ago

At 6.25 N/kW it's not going to be flying for very long in terms of duration. It's a toy concept that's neat. The real accomplishment here is the design of the very low mass high voltage inverter. That's some serious engineering.

rhacker 8y ago
So there's nothing in the design that can be done at scale that's useful here? I'm not trying to nit-pick, but are you saying none of the design (except for the power supply) is novel or useful?
- superkuh 8y ago
  Exactly. Electrostatic lifters have been around forever. I even made one with a neon sign transformer back in the late 90s. But my power supply was literally heavy iron and with wall current connected to the balsa/foil craft with very light magnet wire. Making the electrical energy storage and high power HV generation light enough is no small feat. That's what should be celebrated here.
  - DavidSJ 8y ago
    Could the energy be beamed from the surface, like a trolleybus powered by power lines?
WrtCdEvrydy 8y ago
> 6.25 N/kW I wonder what the energy density of a NASA nuclear power plant is.
- Boxxed 8y ago
  The radioisotope power plants? Very, very low. I think they output a few hundred watts of power. They're mostly used because they're very reliable and consistent over a long period of time.