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Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

bloomberg.com

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Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#31

Post by e12e »

vertexFarm wrote: post #26
e12e wrote: post #17

> “It’s fuel, consumables, and I don’t even want to tell you what our satellite bill is for data,” Interesting - the circumference of the earth is roughly 40 thousand km. If these could manage to lift an antenna either 140m (or equivalently 70m for all participants) - distance to Horizon should be roughly 40 km. So a thousand boats could form a theoretical relay net around a theoretical line in the ocean reaching aro…

That's interesting. 70 meters is a pretty dang tall aerial for something with that small a footprint to hold aloft, though. That plan also limits their range of movement severely to keep the network intact, but I guess they could use satellite as a backup. Maybe a kite of some kind, but how do you reliably launch and retrieve it? I dunno, I think in practice the satellite may be cheaper.

Disposable paper hot-air balloon for lift, retractable antenna? Or perhaps better yet: disposable paper kite?

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#32

Post by nonbel »

vermontdevil wrote: post #20

Younger researchers no longer want to spend that much time at sea, cut off from most of the internet. “It’s really hard to get the younger generation excited about going to sea,” says NOAA’s Meinig. “People think it’s romantic and then find they can’t text their friends and don’t have access to hundreds of channels of TV. It’s just a different style of life.” Fascinating. I guess the Saildrone is the ideal solution.

I wonder if this is really a generational thing vs a different type of person winning NOAA grants than in the past. Ie, people more interested in hype, advocacy, networking, etc than science.

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#34

Post by dithering »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #27
e12e wrote: post #17

> “It’s fuel, consumables, and I don’t even want to tell you what our satellite bill is for data,” Interesting - the circumference of the earth is roughly 40 thousand km. If these could manage to lift an antenna either 140m (or equivalently 70m for all participants) - distance to Horizon should be roughly 40 km. So a thousand boats could form a theoretical relay net around a theoretical line in the ocean reaching aro…

If high endurance air drones are advanced enough, you can coordinate sea and air nodes to make a mesh that avoids clouds and line of sight all-together so you don't have to string the network over the sea level horizon. Maybe have autonomous platforms that allow both to refuel too if they use hybrid systems.

Balloons, maybe.

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#35

Post by state_less »

e12e wrote: post #17

> “It’s fuel, consumables, and I don’t even want to tell you what our satellite bill is for data,” Interesting - the circumference of the earth is roughly 40 thousand km. If these could manage to lift an antenna either 140m (or equivalently 70m for all participants) - distance to Horizon should be roughly 40 km. So a thousand boats could form a theoretical relay net around a theoretical line in the ocean reaching aro…

There is a system of AIS to broadcast position, course and speed of marine vessels. Perhaps one could combine this with a mesh relay network to forward packets to boats in the direction of land. An AIS and long range WiFi-like system running on top of sailor’s masts would be a fun community to bring together. Software defined radios could come in handy to handle multiple frequencies and protocols.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#37

Post by azinman2 »

Totally off topic aside: I’m seeing a lot of Bloomberg links these days and I’m constantly “over the free limit.” Sometimes the “web” strategy works, and sometimes it doesn’t (like this article for me).

If I add up all the sources that are typical for HN it’s quite a lot. Bloomberg alone is $40/Mo now long term, plus nytimes, Washington Post, economist, FT, etc.

I already pay for two of these — I don’t feel the need for yet another, and I’m not going to start browsing Bloomberg for non-linked content.

What I’d like is the ability to pay for a universal “HN” articles membership to ANY website. If it’s linked from HN, let me read the full article, but it’s ok if I can’t browse the website.

A lot of publishers effectively do this for Facebook for free; why not for smaller aggregators for a membership?

Re: Ocean-going robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and science

#39

Post by NicoJuicy »

__aeneas wrote: post #4

Saw the video yesterday on YouTube. I wonder what happens if they get into very strong winds or very strong swell - if they tip over, do they get up by themselves? What happens if they submerge? Apparently they figured out how to do it, but my question is, how exactly are they doing it?

Have a heavier pole underwater?
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