3 ms·
I can't imagine the efficiency that makes such long flights possible in such a tiny form factor. Compared to our drones, it must be multiple orders of magnitude
by meindnoch 1y ago
I can't imagine the efficiency that makes such long flights possible in such a tiny form factor. Compared to our drones, it must be multiple orders of magnitude more efficient.
- danparsonson 1y agoIt helps to be extremely lightweight and small - the smaller you get, the less effort you need to put into just staying aloft.
- vintermann 1y agoWhat happens when we start making drones that small, I wonder.
- easygenes 1y ago“Flies Aren’t Real”
- withinboredom 1y agoHaven’t you noticed fewer birds than you saw when you were younger?
- Tepix 1y agoIt's called smart dust. Check Sci-Fi bookshelves.
- Cthulhu_ 1y agoNot to mention they're much more influenced by wind currents.
- driggs 1y agoThe smaller you are, the less energy you can store. Efficiency is a maximization of these ratios.
- Terr_ 1y agoThey go high too. https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/look-up-the-billion-bug-highway-you-cant-see https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/06/01/128389587/l...
- slightwinder 1y agoNot sure whether is a matter of efficiency. Efficiency is more about the desired outcome. Insects are small and very low weight. So I would assume wind will give them more push and can carry them for much longer distances even without doing anything on their own. But the price is a lack of control; they have probably little to no influence where they will end up.
- ljf 1y agoIndeed - and let's not forget that these are the ones that successfully landed somewhere - many many others will have landed in the sea, or otherwise died before they could reach a suitable spot. The ones that landed here hadn't aimed for or planned to find the rig, they were just in the same physical location and found a space to land.
- muragekibicho 1y agoThe text version of the 'airplane with bullet holes' meme lol
- andai 1y agoA few years ago in the Mediterranean I observed what initially seemed like an oil spill. Taking a closer look, it turned out to be millions of tiny dead insects. I guess sometimes they do land in the sea? At the time, I tried to find information about it online, and all I found was an article about it happening on the other side of the Atlantic several years earlier.
- justonceokay 1y agoThere’s a reason most insects have thousands of offspring. Wikipedia states that houseflies have about 5k. Since their population isn’t exponentially exploding, you can assume the chance of reproducing as a fly is something like 1/5000
- grumpy-de-sre 1y agoI'm kind of keen to see if large electric cargo motor gliders might one day become a thing. Traversing great distances via ambient energy harvesting. Maybe even self landing at certain designated airfields to top up on energy and avoid bad weather. A migration of the machines so to say.
- raffael_de 1y agoThermals and wind.
- foxyv 1y agoI suspect that they operate similar to hot air balloons. Land when the wind is going the wrong direction and then maintain altitude when it's going the right direction.