CBC News reports that Solar Voyager, a solar-powered, unpiloted boat, has been picked up by the Canadian navy after becoming tangled in fishing nets. The boat had travelled about 1000 km, from Massachusetts to the vicinity of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, on what had been intended to be a transatlantic voyage.
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The Lonely Transatlantic Journey of a Self-Sailing Solar Ship
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Nearly 400 miles off the Massachusetts coast, a self-sailing, solar-powered, boat is bobbing along all alone. Looking like a very lonely, very miniature cargo ship, it’s at the start of a voyage that will hopefully take it more than 3,000 miles across the Atlantic and into the record books.
“Several people have tried, and they didn’t make it,” says Isaac Penny, one of the boat’s builders. “A lot of things could go wrong.”
Unlike Bertrand Piccard’s upcoming transatlantic flight on the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 , the Solar Voyager has no human navigator. The computer in control is following pre-programmed GPS waypoints. Every 15 minutes, it reports its position online for everyone to see, along with data like speed, solar power generated, battery level, and local temperature.
At 18 feet long, Solar Voyager is roughly the size of an ocean kayak, and looks reasonably robust until you see it pictured next to another ship. The aluminum shell is just 2.5 feet across. Early prototypes built from plastic proved too fragile for the ocean conditions in the Atlantic, where waves can easily reach 30 feet high in a storm, and cause trouble even for cruise ships [autoplay warning]. “It’s pretty rough out there,” says Penny.
Almost all of the available upper surface of the wee vessel is given over to solar panels, 280 Watts worth. Below deck are 2.4-kWh batteries to run at night. A Go-Pro is set up to take pictures and short videos which will (hopefully) be retrieved when the boat next encounters a human. That may take a while. Solar Voyager’s two propellers provide a max speed under five mph, so Penny expects the crossing to take around four months, weather dependent.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday July 01 2016, @12:37AM
I suppose with it tangled in fishing nets it could become a hazard to navigation.
I remember reading it was designed to avoid shipping channels, but even then the builders didn't think it could harm anything that hit it doe to its small size and light construction.
But I can't imagine why they didn't plan on handling drift gill nets.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday July 01 2016, @02:01AM
So following the channels would probably be a better idea - get kicked about from time to time but the lane would have little debris.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday July 01 2016, @02:06AM
Well they really hadn't even gotten out of prime fishing regions.
But you are right, 25 miles south of the main shipping channel is pretty clear of traffic because all the big boys are gps navigated these days.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2016, @01:16AM
Ro, ro, ro your bot
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2016, @02:32AM
Life is but a dream
Ro, ro, ro your bot
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2016, @02:34AM
Merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
Ro, ro, ro your bot
Gently down the stream
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday July 01 2016, @04:33AM
Rounds are not appropriate for SolyentNews, we prefer recursive Unix filesystem directories.
(Score: 4, Funny) by lentilla on Friday July 01 2016, @07:23AM
That rather depends if the SoylentNews distributed compiler implements tail-call optimisation, in which case this is a perfect example of recursion:
Although this doesn't use the filesystem, per aristarchus' requirements. Perhaps this might just suffice:
Just in case it needs to be said... don't try this at home unless you have an odd desire to have your disk filled with songs about boat rowing.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday July 01 2016, @08:06AM
Thus, it begins.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 01 2016, @01:35AM
Should have used supergenius Indian coders like industry best practice dictates.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday July 01 2016, @04:39AM
Watching the new season of Battlebotstm, there was a surprise net attack, and they objected that entanglements were prohibited. I did not know that, but on the other hand, outside of the arena, say on the high seas where piracy runs rampant with torrents and what not, perhaps it is a good idea to have a spinning disk of razor sharp blades, just in case you run across some derelict netting. Ocean crossing means self-sufficiency, or at least it used to.