All of gojomo's Comments + Replies

Stably-positioned, heavily-capitalized, professionally-managed, presumably-licensed beamed-power infrastructure, such as terrestrial power stations or solar power satellites, aren't really like random malicious or careless people with portable lasers. So if beamed-power otherwise becomes technically practical/beneficial, this seems a safety/perception/regulation challenge not especially larger than the many others involved here.

1elidourado2yYes, sounds plausible to me.

Eli Dourado AMA

gojomo2y1

So theoretical airship-cargo is still way more expensive per container or ton than either rail or container-ships – it just wins by speed or having more endpoints (like trucking)? Hence, 'airship trailers' provide no chance of incremental capacity boosts for surface vessels, if still limited to their speed/endpoints?

Capping laser/microwave/etc beamed power density to what's safe for failure situations where it's "missed the receiver" seems prematurely restrictive. What if misses are so rare, & so easily detected/ended-instantly, that such a limit... (read more)

1elidourado2yI think airships could in principle approach rail costs but it would add a lot of complexity relative to just running another train on the same track. Big container ships are always going to be cheaper, I think. FAA and pilots get mad about people pointing laser pointers into the sky. I agree winds are super important and must be designed for and planned for in routing. Using them for sailing (added propulsion) is also promising.

Eli Dourado AMA

gojomo2y1

On cargo airships: has anyone analyzed designs that remain towed/tethered to surface routes/vessels?

For example, could an electric locomotive powered by ground lines tow far larger amounts of cargo via a tethered airship? Or, an oceangoing container ship tow more tonnage in its air-trailer than in its holds?

Alternatively, could such tethers-along-routes supply electricity to self-propelled airships, minimizing onboard fuel/generation weight?

Or, could airships receive beamed power from elsewhere? For example, tightly-planned routes might receive beame... (read more)

2elidourado2yIf I understand the tethering question, I don't think that would help. A train or container ship can already carry many times more cargo than an airship can. When I looked at space-based solar power, I was struck that the wireless transmission was not much denser than solar (otherwise, they would pose a danger to the ground if they missed the receiver). I think putting thin-film solar could buy its way onto the top of the hull if it was cheap and light enough. I have heard about very high-powered laser propulsion systems for high-speed aircraft, but those seem a long way off. If you're talking about drones using rotary lift to carry 1 container at a time, those might need to be pretty powerful to work! I am not sure it calcs out. Would be cool if it worked though. I am not aware of any no-go areas for wind. Would assume Antarctica might be bad, but it's already no-go for altitude and few people live there anyway. I think you would want to design the mission to route around storms and just get there a day late if necessary (with a contract structure that reflects this possibility). You probably never want to scuttle the ship since it's likely expensive compared to the cargo value.