this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
27 points (90.9% liked)
Futurology
3148 readers
193 users here now
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Not sure you can have a solar powered blimp. It would rely on helium if hydrogen to float which would mean resupplying it on a regular basis as it will never be completely sealed and always have some slow gas losses over time.
Unless you can somehow have a lightweight solar powered hydrogen producing machine which splits water taken from the air.
Solar powered blimps can use hydrolysis to break apart water and get hydrogen using electricity from solar panels. That same hydrogen can then be used for both buoyancy and as energy storage using fuel cells to turn it back into electricity when needed.
That's what first came to my mind. Water from air to hydrogen from water. Would need to do r&d tho to see if it's possible.
Pretty sure the only R&D you need to do is thermodynamics 101.
Is the energy from the sun that could be harvested from a blimp sized footprint enough to convert enough hydrogen to account for the leaks in a blimp and to power propellers to keep it in one spot.
I don't know those numbers.