4 ms·

Right but now you're consuming energy to run those compressors, making the energy-savings moot. If you look at the history of airship development (which admitte

Right but now you're consuming energy to run those compressors, making the energy-savings moot. If you look at the history of airship development (which admittedly is ancient by modern technological standards), there were several incidents of airships floating away from their mooring. Mooring an airship is actually a fairly difficult problem.

coryrc 5y ago
Energy usage for compression is tiny compared to actually transiting, and you can get some of the energy back. Or if it was hydrogen fueled, just run your engines for a short time.
- Karrot_Kream 5y ago
  Fair enough you're probably right. And if you have a battery onboard and charge it using solar cells on the ship, you should have enough energy generated to at least run the compressor and dock the ship.
  - manicpolymath 5y ago
    This might be slow, but what about using the lift gas in a fuel cell with atmospheric O2 for extra efficiency? You reduce the lift gas in the bags, and if you store the water aboard then you get extra ballast. You could even “unload” the extra electricity for use groundside. The corollary pipe dream here is to line the entire interior of the envelope as a fuel cell membrane and use the airship as a portable battery.
    - m4rtink 5y ago
      IIRC some military airships condensed water from their their engine exhaust to keep better control over their balance (the ship otherwise gets lighter as you burn fuel and you might have to release some of the irreplaceable lifting gas instead).
- fogihujy 5y ago
  Or, just have the compressor ready at the dock, and wait with the unloading until the hydrogen has been compressed. But yeah, simply running a compressor powered by hydrogen should suffice. I assume the airships would require some surplus hydrogen anyway, in case there's a mid-flight leak or something.
hutzlibu 5y ago
Cover the whole outside of the blimp in solar panel foil? I do not see energy as the problem.

coryrc 5y ago

Energy usage for compression is tiny compared to actually transiting, and you can get some of the energy back. Or if it was hydrogen fueled, just run your engines for a short time.

Karrot_Kream 5y ago
Fair enough you're probably right. And if you have a battery onboard and charge it using solar cells on the ship, you should have enough energy generated to at least run the compressor and dock the ship.
- manicpolymath 5y ago
  This might be slow, but what about using the lift gas in a fuel cell with atmospheric O2 for extra efficiency? You reduce the lift gas in the bags, and if you store the water aboard then you get extra ballast. You could even “unload” the extra electricity for use groundside. The corollary pipe dream here is to line the entire interior of the envelope as a fuel cell membrane and use the airship as a portable battery.
  - m4rtink 5y ago
    IIRC some military airships condensed water from their their engine exhaust to keep better control over their balance (the ship otherwise gets lighter as you burn fuel and you might have to release some of the irreplaceable lifting gas instead).
fogihujy 5y ago
Or, just have the compressor ready at the dock, and wait with the unloading until the hydrogen has been compressed. But yeah, simply running a compressor powered by hydrogen should suffice. I assume the airships would require some surplus hydrogen anyway, in case there's a mid-flight leak or something.

hutzlibu 5y ago

Cover the whole outside of the blimp in solar panel foil? I do not see energy as the problem.