CoolIP                       ~Dave Santos            April 15, 2011       M3379

Comment and development of this topic will be occurring here.       
All, send notes, drawings, and photographs!

Terms and aspects:   

• v           

Related links:

• v

Commentary is welcome:

• There may develop an aviation environment that is more loaded with tethered systems than with untethered systems. Aerial cableways. Free-flight tethered AWECS. Aerial homesteading. Massive tethered kite energy systems performing a myriad of tasks. Cost of avoidance of collision for untethered craft might be miniscule compared to the cost of avoidance performed by tethered systems. Efficient skies and waters might respect the net costs as rules and decisions are made. There maybe tethered systems that take a year or more to deploy with design intent never to be absolutely decommissioned, only maintained; such might transport people and goods around the world by windpower; a single-place ultralight could know where that tethered system is and avoid collision;
  the tethered system would be seen by other aircraft and watercraft through a variety of systems for redundancy. One does not move the Empire State Building to get out of the way of any other user of the airspace.   ~ JoeF  
  • Joe,     Good point but let's take the first steps first. The job of the aviation
    authorities is to protect people and they do it very rigorously because
    mishaps are extremely newsworthy and threaten the whole aviation
    industry. Newcomers like AWE need to prove they have an important need
    and cause no extra danger. Promising to make every effort get out of the
    way will smooth the negotiating path. And why not? It is possible.
    Tackling the issues of your more ambitious proposals need to come later.
    ~  Robert
       
• Dave S,
  A combination of ground based radar, infra red cameras and microphones
  would detect aircraft before any human, and pinpoint their position and
  trajectory more accurately. One observation station could serve for many
  AWE systems in a cluster or farm.
  
  I agree GPS will have limited use. However, it is interesting to compare
  that technology with what AWE needs to achieve. A GPS unit needs to scan
  for suitable satellites and then measure incredibly accurately how long
  the signals take to arrive from each. It then needs to do very complex
  calculations to work out its position based on that of the satellites.
  It then overlays that information onto a detailed map. To think that all
  that functionality can be put into a tiny unit that costs a few hours
  wages is to me a major reassurance that AWE can be automated.
  
  Kite position can be determined with simpler sensors with faster
  responses. For instance the sensors from a humble computer mouse could
  determine exactly how far the tethers have been released. Other sensors
  would measure the angle of the tether leaving the reel. More would
  measure the tension in the tethers. That information together should
  locate the kite better than GPS, and more quickly. GPS and video can be
  used to confirm the primary measurements and detect faults.
  
  Rather than letting kite elements fall to the ground where they are
  likely to be damaged would it not be better to reel them into a
  protective docking station.
  ~  Robert.
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