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Why not make a solar-electric narcosub? That way you don't need fuel, and you're not relying on an IC engine with a bunch of moving parts, and that has a heat s
by lordnacho 1y ago
Why not make a solar-electric narcosub? That way you don't need fuel, and you're not relying on an IC engine with a bunch of moving parts, and that has a heat signature. The sun is shining in the ocean that these cartels are sailing in anyway, so there should be power.
Steer with GPS, that way you are only listening.
I wouldn't rely on Starlink, it seems like something that could be discovered easily. Any authority that had a map of where legit ships are could filter down to the mysterious Starlinks that are in the middle of the water, but near a remote coast, having traveled from Colombia, not on a known vessel.
Maybe if you need the comms, you rely on radio. Whatever the ham radio people use could perhaps be made into something. You don't need a lot of bandwidth anyway.
I guess the question is economics, then. How many trips could you get on a little boat that has a solar panel, electric engine, a battery, GPS, and a radio? And what would that cost?
- kjksf 1y agoBecause solar panel math doesn't work. It's the same reason it makes no sense to put solar panels on a car: the solar panels would add minutes of driving daily. You would need massive area of solar panels to power a sub which is obviously not workable if you want to be stealthy.
- lordnacho 1y agoBut I'm thinking of a sub that is mostly just a solar panel. You don't need to be able to put a person in it? Don't you get a few hundred watts from a square meter?
- 15155 1y agoYou need far more than a few hundred watts to move something in the open water, and these semi-submersibles aren't typically more than 30' vessels. The math doesn't work out.
- mbirth 1y agoRCTestFlight begs to differ: > 72hrs On My Unlimited Range Solar Boat > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc2PFExZXas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc2PFExZXas
- 93po 1y agoa narco sub could easily be 50x the weight, needs to move significantly faster (RCTF boat is going like 5mph tops), and is fighting against extremely strong currents and waves (RCTF is on extremely still calm water).
- xnx 1y agoIn addition to being impractical, rigid/flat/reflective solar panels would probably be easy to find via satellite or aerial means.