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The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

rain.aero

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Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#61

Post by beepbooptheory »

klyrs wrote: post #45
onion2k wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lofty ideas, supported only by hope. They're a startup. That's what startups do. If you think they're wasting their time you're really on the wrong website right now.

Most startups fail. Declaring any one a waste of effort is statistically justified. Alternative reason to read HN: a sadistic desire to watch people fail, and say that I told you so.

This is maybe unnecessarily harsh (but you do you).

I too am mostly here in a more spectating mode when it comes to all the VC startup brained ideas, but its not primarily people that fail, its an entire system of thought, and the money that gets poured into it; its staunch belief in technological determinism combined with highly sophisticated investment schemes and plenty of capital.

I am not going to the race to see the cars maybe crash, its enough to see the cars go round and round in circles.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#62

Post by temp8604 »

On a day where there is actually high fire risk (ie. high wind in hot weather) this system will be too late and not deliver enough retardant to make any difference. In those conditions you will have tens or hundreds of square meters of fire in within that time. Actual fire ignition will usually not be in the open away from other materials as shown in the example. It may be able to stop fires on days when conditions are mild enough to let it run for the ecosystem benefits.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#63

Post by dragonsky67 »

Just wondering what the range is on those drones. If you are supposed to be covering 100's of km of bushland you will need a significant number of drones, or they will need to have high speed and long range.

Wondering if they would be better having the fire retardant dropped from some type of lighter than air craft or maybe base the drones on a lighter than air craft that can loiter in the area for a significant period, reducing the difficulty in pre placing the drones.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#64

Post by space_fountain »

CrazyStat wrote: post #56
dillondoyle wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be interested to hear from a scientist on a couple questions I've had around this thinking: I've read that because of this built up material AND dead trees from beetle kill, no water or snow, etc that the fires burn too hot and kill the regenerative seeds. Is this true? If so how does that factor into the balance of that decision? And do they take into account the carbon and pollution emitted that's a HUGE ne…

> Maybe we can't ever stop them from happening in the first place perhaps it's more flatten the curve We've been trying to "flatten the curve" for the past century. Turns out that was a bad idea. The only way too get back to a healthy ecosystem at this point is to allow a hundred years of excess built up fuel to burn. California had artificially pleasant (i.e mostly wildfire-free) summers for many years. The next few…

Isn't this a very norm biased idea. I think geo engineering gets too much of a bad rap. It's powerful and thus massive mistakes have and will be made, but we're only going to get better at it. Why resign ourselves. Would logging at sufficient amounts help, could we better smooth the release of water and fix this? I sort of hate the modern environmentalisms insistence that we should just throw up our hands and anything else is inherently bad.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#66

Post by dragonsky67 »

mabbo wrote: post #39

The reason we have such terrible fires now is that we keep putting out fires when they're small. Nature builds up too much burnable matter over time. Small fires would burn it in small, localized areas. But if the small fires don't happen then we get the massive fires that destroy towns, cities, and cost lives. I am not impressed by a new way to put out small fires, because that just ensures bigger fires in the long…

One of the biggest problems with managing bushfire in Australia is having the fire "jump the line". Where embers fly ahead of the main fire, starting spot fires that unless dealt with just extend the reach of the fire. Currently a lot of spot fire management is attempted using helicopters with water buckets, but this is both expensive and bloody dangerous. Being able to use semi disposable drones could assist dramatically.

There are however a number of problems I can see that this approach will have to overcome.

- You need to preposition the drone in such a way that it can remain charged and also is protected from any potential bush fire before it's utilised. This could be achieved with a fire protected, solar powered shelter, but this significantly increases the cost. Maybe they could be deployed from a long duration aircraft?

- The airspace around a bush fire is a particularly hostile environment. I'm not seeing the average off the shelf drone deal with smoke, particles and embers and still function effectively. Also the sensor package will have to deal with restricted view as well as reduced GPS/Radio caused by smoke/firestorm interference.

That said, this system could be very effective in dealing with smaller locations, close to built up areas where you can target deployment for those high risk fire ban periods.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#67

Post by RC_ITR »

lnwlebjel wrote: post #41
mabbo wrote: post #39

The reason we have such terrible fires now is that we keep putting out fires when they're small. Nature builds up too much burnable matter over time. Small fires would burn it in small, localized areas. But if the small fires don't happen then we get the massive fires that destroy towns, cities, and cost lives. I am not impressed by a new way to put out small fires, because that just ensures bigger fires in the long…

Alternatively, this allows you to burn when you want to, such as when conditions are favorable to maintain control of the fire. You're correct that preventing large fires is important - control burns must be part of the solution.

Yeah, we should definitely put out small fires in August and let (or force) bigger ones to burn in March.

Wild how little critical thinking gets put behind these meme ideas like 'historic forest management is the only problem and we should let everything burn'.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#68

Post by cgriswald »

ceejayoz wrote: post #43
Teever wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Living near something doesn't make one an expert in that thing. I live near a school, but I'm still fairly worthless as an elementary school teacher or administrator. The actual experts agree with the parent poster. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/06/how-fore... https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/decades-mismanagement-l... https://www.propublica.org/article/they-know-how-to-prevent-... https://www.…

The grandparent poster seems to be commenting about relative risk rather than personal expertise. You may not make a good elementary school teacher or administrator, but it would make sense for you to have an opinion on how the school manages traffic. Certainly you wouldn't value my opinion since I don't live by the school and even if I had expertise in school traffic management I might not have your interests in mind.

That said, I don't agree with the poster's attitude. (For the record, I live next to, and essentially in a large forest.) A controlled burn could get out of hand, but in general, controlled burns will do so less frequently than an unplanned wildfire if we aren't doing controlled burns. Or, in other words, whatever short term risk there is from a controlled burn near me is paid back by a reduced overall long term risk. Since I have no plans to sell my home (and even if I did, because I care about other people) controlled burns is a clear path forward from my point of view.

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#69

Post by Teever »

ceejayoz wrote: post #43
Teever wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Living near something doesn't make one an expert in that thing. I live near a school, but I'm still fairly worthless as an elementary school teacher or administrator. The actual experts agree with the parent poster. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/06/how-fore... https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/decades-mismanagement-l... https://www.propublica.org/article/they-know-how-to-prevent-... https://www.…

I live in a location that is more or less impervious to the effects of climate change and rising sea levels but I still support the development of technology like dams that will save lives in the face of rising sea levels. This is no different

Re: The Rain System “contains wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition”

#70

Post by dragonsky67 »

svnt wrote: post #32
motohagiography wrote: post #25

Plus, it's a complete aerial surveillance network for wildnerness. What it doesn't prevent in fires it makes up for in policing and governance. Fire marshalls and fire codes have been used for warrantless searches on activists for decades because they have fewer restrictions than police. I once met an environmental investigator in government who was regularly brought in by regional police to do drone flyovers with FL…

The drones don’t fly unless there is a fire, otherwise the drones become a major fire risk, statistically.

base the drones on an airship that can loiter for days/weeks.

airship could also assist in surveillance.

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