5 ms·
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 v
by 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 agoSo 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 agoExactly. 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 agoCould 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 agoThe 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.