Comment by Christiaan van Vollenstee on June 28, 2012 at 3:04am

This is absolutly awesome. I will follow this progress.

Comment by bGatti on June 28, 2012 at 6:58am

I call tacocopter on this post.

That 20 inch boat hull ain't crossing no ocean, and it ain't holding no 130 watt solar anything.

You can come up with anything you want (tacocopter) but physics is a bitch.

1. The ocean is (nearly) a fractal surface - which increases in length as you increase the resolution: 20 inches is very high resolution.

2. The oceans have gyre, and significant currents; one cannot navigate the ocean over an extended period of time - one must be able to overcome the oceans inherent movement in order to arrive at a given destination.

3. no amount of arcane ducted fanoolery will overcome 1 & 2.

4. on the other hand; if this is a GPS-in-a-bottle and it doesn't matter where it ends up - knock yerself out.

In related news: Zombie Apocalypse to decimate humankind.

Comment by Alex Roup on June 28, 2012 at 7:35am

So what they're trying to do is basically this:

http://ausi.org/research/sauv/

Comment by Veikko Vierola on June 28, 2012 at 11:47am

You have to make it so tough that it can withstand 25kt direct hit of a transport ship. And surfaces so smooth and round that it will not get cought to any fishing nets.

Comment by Paul Mather on June 28, 2012 at 12:41pm

From what I understand, land based solar panels require constant cleaning to keep them running as efficiently as possible. In this case, I should think salt might tend to build up on the panels significantly reducing their output.

 

I'm sure there are smaller and more efficient panels than this, but your typical 130W solar panel is 55" X 26" weighing 25 lbs.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Instapark%C2%AE-Black-Mono-crystalline-Solar-...

 

Then there's the issue of sinking a boat that small....which would be super easy. 50 tons of water crashing over a 3lb boat....it will float back up after the storm in 50 pieces.

 

Neat idea, no chance it will work.

Comment by Veikko Vierola on June 28, 2012 at 2:39pm

I would try a capsule style boat made out of transparent durable impact proof material. The center of gravity should be as low as possible so the boat will always turn the right way and will never capsize. I think the propulsion is the hardest part. How to make small propulsion system that will work long time in dirty water.

 

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