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It annoys me that Makani (tethered kites) closed this week but released everything from patents to a documentary and a 1000+ page ebook and their modelling soft

It annoys me that Makani (tethered kites) closed this week but released everything from patents to a documentary and a 1000+ page ebook and their modelling software for free [6] But hardly anyone cares. But several orders of magnitude harder, maybe impossible, it's exciting? If we can't tether in our atmosphere what chance is there in space. [6] https://www.x.company/projects/makani/ https://www.x.company/projects/makani/

sohkamyung 6y ago
IEEE Spectrum did write an article about its closure [1] [1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/exclusive-airborne-wind-energy-company-closes-shop-opens-patents https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/exclu...
sleepy_keita 6y ago
I had the same thought. Makani had an interesting idea but the reliability wasn't there -- even if they had all of the problems worked out, the system having only one tether and such a fragile glider would have been inherently unreliable. That said, it might be easier in space because there's less atmosphere to worry about (not nothing though, debris and micrometeoroids would probably pose a problem in the long run)
jpm_sd 6y ago
"Nobody cares" because they were solving the wrong problem. Existing wind turbine designs work just fine and they are cheaper and far more reliable. https://despair.com/products/mistakes?variant=2457302467 https://despair.com/products/mistakes?variant=2457302467
- aaron695 6y ago
  Gas works fine to create energy, they mention gas in the doco. Wind turbines also solve the wrong problem. The nobody cares bit is around HN not caring all their info was made open source (Try algolia). There's no reason you couldn't try and pivot. It's something you can contribute code to. Tethers can also supply electricity upwards. You could make permanent platforms, perhaps. Space tethers are probably impossible, certainly nothing can be started for decades. It's fun to LARP but it'd also be nice to get equally keen about things that are possible and actionable.

sohkamyung 6y ago

IEEE Spectrum did write an article about its closure [1] [1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/exclusive-airborne-wind-energy-company-closes-shop-opens-patents https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/exclu...

sleepy_keita 6y ago

I had the same thought. Makani had an interesting idea but the reliability wasn't there -- even if they had all of the problems worked out, the system having only one tether and such a fragile glider would have been inherently unreliable. That said, it might be easier in space because there's less atmosphere to worry about (not nothing though, debris and micrometeoroids would probably pose a problem in the long run)

jpm_sd 6y ago

"Nobody cares" because they were solving the wrong problem. Existing wind turbine designs work just fine and they are cheaper and far more reliable. https://despair.com/products/mistakes?variant=2457302467 https://despair.com/products/mistakes?variant=2457302467

aaron695 6y ago
Gas works fine to create energy, they mention gas in the doco. Wind turbines also solve the wrong problem. The nobody cares bit is around HN not caring all their info was made open source (Try algolia). There's no reason you couldn't try and pivot. It's something you can contribute code to. Tethers can also supply electricity upwards. You could make permanent platforms, perhaps. Space tethers are probably impossible, certainly nothing can be started for decades. It's fun to LARP but it'd also be nice to get equally keen about things that are possible and actionable.