Open_Sailing

Noah Shelter : Japan's answer to next tsunami

2011-10-01T18:58:00.005+01:00

Via Nick Kaufmann
http://www.smh.com.au/world/japans-answer-to-next-tsunami-miniark-20111001-1l276.html

October 1, 2011 - 7:01AM

Japanese company markets tsunami escape pod

A small factory in Japan has introduced a tsunami survival shelter, a capsule which floats on water and is able to hold four adults inside.

Video feedback
Video settings

A small Japanese company has developed a modern, miniature version of Noah's Ark in case Japan is hit by another massive earthquake and tsunami: a floating capsule that looks like a huge tennis ball.

Japan's Cosmo Power says its "Noah" shelter is made of enhanced fibreglass that can save users from disasters like the one on March 11 that devasted Japan's northern coast, leaving nearly 20,000 people dead or missing.

Company president Shoji Tanaka says the 300,000 yen ($A4000) capsule can hold four adults, and has survived many crash tests. It has a small lookout window and breathing holes on top. It can also be used as a toy house for children.

Cosmo Power Co. President Shoji Tanaka inside the spherical earthquake and tsunami shelter "Noah" made of fibre enforced plastic. Photo: AP

The company has already delivered two capsules and has orders for 600 more.

Noah Shelter : Japan's answer to next tsunami

2011-10-01T18:58:00.003+01:00

Via Nick Kaufmann
http://www.smh.com.au/world/japans-answer-to-next-tsunami-miniark-20111001-1l276.html

October 1, 2011 - 7:01AM

Click to play video

Japanese company markets tsunami escape pod

A small factory in Japan has introduced a tsunami survival shelter, a capsule which floats on water and is able to hold four adults inside.

Video feedback
Video settings

A small Japanese company has developed a modern, miniature version of Noah's Ark in case Japan is hit by another massive earthquake and tsunami: a floating capsule that looks like a huge tennis ball.

Cosmo Power Co. President Shoji Tanaka inside the spherical earthquake and tsunami shelter "Noah" made of fibre enforced plastic. Photo: AP

The company has already delivered two capsules and has orders for 600 more.

Noah Shelter : Japan's answer to next tsunami

2011-10-01T18:58:00.001+01:00

Via Nick Kaufmann
http://www.smh.com.au/world/japans-answer-to-next-tsunami-miniark-20111001-1l276.html

October 1, 2011 - 7:01AM

Click to play video

Japanese company markets tsunami escape pod

A small factory in Japan has introduced a tsunami survival shelter, a capsule which floats on water and is able to hold four adults inside.

Video feedback
Video settings

A small Japanese company has developed a modern, miniature version of Noah's Ark in case Japan is hit by another massive earthquake and tsunami: a floating capsule that looks like a huge tennis ball.

Cosmo Power Co. President Shoji Tanaka inside the spherical earthquake and tsunami shelter "Noah" made of fibre enforced plastic. Photo: AP

The company has already delivered two capsules and has orders for 600 more.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Fire ant rafts

2011-06-02T11:17:00.001+01:00

Wired have an amazing story about the phenomenon of ant-rafts forming in the species Solenopsis invicta. Through seemingly arbitrary bonds between indivicual ants, a "ball" of ants dropped into water forms a resilient raft that can stay afloat for weeks. Read more here, or the original article here.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Recycled Rigs: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities?

2011-04-24T09:23:00.005+01:00

via Felix Compere.

http://dornob.com/recycled-rigs-abandoned-oil-platforms-as-ocean-mini-cities/

It is hard to believe that there are companies capable of creating (relatively) robust structures far out at sea, (usually) capable of withstanding extreme weather and lasting for decades or longer. But their use in harvesting ‘black gold’ from the ocean floor is limited, as alternatives are (hopefully) developed and spill risks increasingly recognized. Here is one vision for how one turn such relics into semi-submerged habitats and give them a new architectural lease on life.

A competition entry by Ku Yee Kee and Hor Sue-Wern of Malaysia forEvolo, this idea is speculative, creative and additive – it is more about exploring various possibilities than creating a resolved design. Still, the latter seems to result from the former, with many metaphorical as well as physical levels spanning from lofted surface layers to submarine science and observation stations.

Much like a skyscraper or other self-contained mega-structure, the program works from the inside out; core service, conveyance and community functions exist in the structural core, while residents of each modular village are arrayed in dwellings plugged in around the outer rim, affording ideal vistas of the surrounding seascapes.

As intriguing as the final renderings are, the process models, sketches and diagrams are at least equally fascinating – they show a series of related and independent thought processes, three-dimensional experiments and sources of inspiration leading up to finished drawings and perspective money shots.

The standard solar and wind power generators are present, but tidal energy is also available given the relatively unique placement of these would-be water towns. Each atoll would, in theory, be at least largely self-sufficient, assuming some space were provided in the final design for growing fruits, vegetables and perhaps selectively raising a little supplemental livestock

Recycled Rigs: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities?

2011-04-24T09:23:00.003+01:00

via Felix Compere.

http://dornob.com/recycled-rigs-abandoned-oil-platforms-as-ocean-mini-cities/

Recycled Rigs: Abandoned Oil Platforms as Ocean Mini-Cities?

2011-04-24T09:23:00.001+01:00

via Felix Compere.

http://dornob.com/recycled-rigs-abandoned-oil-platforms-as-ocean-mini-cities/

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Listening to the Deep Ocean environment, LIDO

2011-04-19T20:36:00.005+01:00

Thanks to Nicolas Huber for link.

http://lido.epsevg.upc.es

http://youtu.be/z-ItgpELavg

Listening to the Deep Ocean environment, LIDO

2011-04-19T20:36:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Nicolas Huber for link.

http://lido.epsevg.upc.es

http://youtu.be/z-ItgpELavg

Listening to the Deep Ocean environment, LIDO

2011-04-19T20:36:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Nicolas Huber for link.

http://lido.epsevg.upc.es

http://youtu.be/z-ItgpELavg

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

4 Days left to support Protei, the Oil Spill cleaning sailing robot.

2011-04-07T13:13:00.001+01:00

Dear fellows,

Some of you may already know about Protei, the project I coordinate.
We managed to raise already more than $20'000 but we only 4 days left to collect the $7500 missing.

Please have a look at this short video and you will understand it all :D

So, to help us you can :
- back us on kickstarter, every $ counts :)

- Share our short URL http://kck.st/hUv68A on your facebook, by email to your friends.

- And if you know journalists, bloggers (who like robots / ocean / environment) etc, give them our media page : http://media.protei.org

Last week we did some tests in Rotterdam, and we are very proud to be presenting Protei at the World Port Day this summer (400'000 visitors!).

Thanks for your help !

Robots Love Animals Too

2011-03-14T16:46:00.001Z

(lifted from Next Nature)

Someday robots may lead fish to safety. At least, that’s the hope of Dr. Maurizio Porfiri, an Assistant Professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University and expert on the dynamics of schooling fish. His knowledge has lead him to develop robotic leaders for groups of fish. To our eyes they look distinctly un-fishy, but in the water, they are surprisingly lifelike swimmers. It’s their action, not their appearance, that convinces living fish to accept the robots as one of their own. Porfiri hopes that his biomimetic robots may one day lead fish away from environmental hazards such as oil spills or underwater turbines. Robots have long borrowed from nature- Maybe it’s time they return the favor.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

On the Water, Nils Ferber

2011-03-13T02:11:00.001Z

http://www.nilsferber.de/landannahme.html

The platform a few days after its first erection in June 2010 in Hamburg.
It was assembled from 13 modules with a diameter of 3m and a 220l-barrel as floating body each.
The main structure was supplemented by floating patches, a six-person-tent and a roof-like net structure.

The platform could carry up to 20 people (if the weight was evenly spread).

Helium-filled registering balloons were used for illumination at night. A 12V bulb inside each balloon was powered by a car batterie in the barrel below.

The patches were kept afloat by PET bottles. Ducks were amongst their biggest fans but gave the plants a hard time.

Connecting the spiral-shaped modules created a rhombic structure in between the barrels. The rhombes were filled out with different materials like truck tarpaulins, nets and scrap wood.
Different material features proposed varying uses: The nets were often used as hammocks while the wooden rhombes provided a more secure base for standing up straight and more serious tasks.

A small rope ferry was installed to grant access to the island at all times and transport goods to and from the island.

At the first night on the water a band gave a concert. Providing electricity was a challenge, though.

Even though the platform was located very central, the actual place was rather quiet and sheltered (you can see the platform under the bridge, on the left side).

Everyday life right in the city.

The floating patches suggested the possibility to grow vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries around and under the platform. In this way the potential habitans could cover their basic needs self-sufficiently. In addition to the patches we used some barrels as planters for small trees.

The barrels can be accesed from the platform and make spacious, waterproof storage containers.
With 13 barrels there is enough room for drinking water, groceries, cooking equipment and whatever else is needed on the platform.

On the Water, Nils Ferber

2011-03-13T02:10:00.003Z

http://www.nilsferber.de/landannahme.html

The platform could carry up to 20 people (if the weight was evenly spread).

Helium-filled registering balloons were used for illumination at night. A 12V bulb inside each balloon was powered by a car batterie in the barrel below.

The patches were kept afloat by PET bottles. Ducks were amongst their biggest fans but gave the plants a hard time.

A small rope ferry was installed to grant access to the island at all times and transport goods to and from the island.

At the first night on the water a band gave a concert. Providing electricity was a challenge, though.

Even though the platform was located very central, the actual place was rather quiet and sheltered (you can see the platform under the bridge, on the left side).

Everyday life right in the city.

On the Water, Nils Ferber

2011-03-13T02:10:00.001Z

http://www.nilsferber.de/landannahme.html

The platform could carry up to 20 people (if the weight was evenly spread).

Helium-filled registering balloons were used for illumination at night. A 12V bulb inside each balloon was powered by a car batterie in the barrel below.

The patches were kept afloat by PET bottles. Ducks were amongst their biggest fans but gave the plants a hard time.

A small rope ferry was installed to grant access to the island at all times and transport goods to and from the island.

At the first night on the water a band gave a concert. Providing electricity was a challenge, though.

Even though the platform was located very central, the actual place was rather quiet and sheltered (you can see the platform under the bridge, on the left side).

Everyday life right in the city.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Launch of Protei, oil spill cleaning open hardware sailing robot.

2011-03-01T16:44:00.001Z

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cesarminoru/protei-open-hardware-oil-spill-cleaning-sailing-ro

Dear fellows. We just launch yesterday Protei on Kickstarter.

Please share the link to our Kickstarter on your facebook, or if you know people in
- environmental justice

- sailing world

- DIY

- open-source

- engineering

Protei is a fleet of Sailing Drones, developed primarily to collect Oil Spills under Open Hardware licensing. An oil spill drifts down the wind, Protei sails upwind to collect the oil. Everyone is welcome to join, contribute, modify, produce, distribute the design and share their findings.

You can watch the 3 minutes video under to understand the detail of how it works :

The technology is really exciting beyond the fact that it could help for ocean study and cleaning.
Have a lovely TED2011!

Launch of Protei, oil spill cleaning open hardware sailing robot.

2011-03-01T16:29:00.001Z

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cesarminoru/protei-open-hardware-oil-spill-cleaning-sailing-ro

Dear fellows. We just launch yesterday Protei on Kickstarter.

Please share the link to our Kickstarter on your facebook, or if you know people in
- environmental justice

- sailing world

- DIY

- open-source

- engineering

You can watch the 3 minutes video under to understand the detail of how it works :

The technology is really exciting beyond the fact that it could help for ocean study and cleaning.
Have a lovely TED2011!

One Prize

2011-02-25T23:49:00.003Z

http://www.oneprize.org/1dates.html

ONE PRIZE INVITES THE WORLD MOST TALENTED AND ENTERPRISING:architects, landscape architects, urban designers, planners, engineers, scientists, cleantech entrepreneurs, economists, artists, students and individuals of all backgrounds:

To propose the NYC BLUE NETWORK by expanding waterborne transportation and linking the five boroughs with a series of green transit hubs incorporating ferries, water taxis, bike shares, electric car-share and electric shuttle buses as well as providing in-water recreation, water-oriented educational and cultural activities and climate resilience.

To further propose for New York City a design for the WORLD LARGEST CLEAN TECH EXPO in 2014, and by doing so to create the world largest urban clean tech corridor along the water, and establish NYC as the ultimate green capital of the world.

ONE PRIZE is an Annual Design and Science Award to Promote Green Design in Cities.
January 10, 2011: Registration opens; Question period opens

April 30, 2011: Registration closes

May 31, 2011 by midnight EST: Submission Due

July 15, 2011: Finalists announced

July 28, 2011: Award Ceremony; Exhibition launched

One Prize

2011-02-25T23:49:00.001Z

http://www.oneprize.org/1dates.html

ONE PRIZE is an Annual Design and Science Award to Promote Green Design in Cities.
January 10, 2011: Registration opens; Question period opens

April 30, 2011: Registration closes

May 31, 2011 by midnight EST: Submission Due

July 15, 2011: Finalists announced

July 28, 2011: Award Ceremony; Exhibition launched

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Open_Sailing at CCCB

2011-01-31T12:25:00.001Z

I just found this video that the CCCB made whilst we were running a workshop in Barcelona last year. It was the end of the day, after a lot of running around, playing games, hunting for rubbish and making models with about 50 people. The room was really really hot and we could only really do one take before we all passed out...

Which reminds me – I might as well take this opportunity to post photos from the CCCB workshop:

www.cesarharada.com

www.coletcastano.com

www.olliepalmer.com

www.interactivearchitecture.org

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Chemical Weapon Munitions Dumped at Sea: An Interactive Map

2011-01-31T05:33:00.005Z

http://cns.miis.edu/multimedia/interactive_files/cw_dumping.htm

Between 1918 and 1970, the U.S. alone dumped CW agents in waters worldwide on at least 74 occasions. These disposals were no small undertaking, taking one fair example from this tour, in 1945 the U.S. military dumped 1,154 55ga drums of arsenic trichloride, 375T of adamsite smoke candles, 75,852 4.2in distilled mustard shells, ~56,000 smoke canisters, and ~23,000 smoke projectiles. This represents only one of dozens of dumpings conducted off the U.S. coast. While some dumping operations were carefully undertaken, including the keeping of detailed records; other dumping operations were done haphazardly with no or minimal written accounts of the disposal locations, quantities disposed or depths.

So far the staff at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (http://cns.miis.edu) have located and chronicled 127 locations where either human exposure to or disposal of chemical weapons agents and/or munitions has occurred. We are virtually certain there are more disposal sites requiring attention hence we present this material in hopes of garnering further interest into this subject.

Chemical Weapon Munitions Dumped at Sea: An Interactive Map

2011-01-31T05:33:00.003Z

http://cns.miis.edu/multimedia/interactive_files/cw_dumping.htm

Chemical Weapon Munitions Dumped at Sea: An Interactive Map

2011-01-31T05:33:00.001Z

http://cns.miis.edu/multimedia/interactive_files/cw_dumping.htm

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Unmanned drones track Arctic ice and seals simultaneously

2010-12-15T19:09:00.003Z

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/15/arctic-drones

By Mark Brown | 15 December 10 _ Via Ollie Palmer

So two groups of researchers have got together for a joint observation project.

Environmental scientists interested in declining sea ice levels and biologists studying seals realised how closely their two fields are interlinked. Fluctuating ice levels -- dictated by global warming, weather patterns and pollution -- have a direct knock-on effect on bearded, ringed, spotted, and ribbon seals, who rely on the sea ice for breeding, resting and hiding from predators.

So the two groups of researchers teamed up to launch an unmanned drone, hooked up with cameras, to survey the areas without risking pilots or observers. The aircraft, owned and operated by the University of Alaska, has a 10-foot wingspan and flies three- to five-mile-long stretches at altitudes ranging from 100-350 metres.

But while clumps of ice are shown in immaculate detail, the seals are little more than ambiguous dots and smudges on the photos. For any human analyst, it would be a laborious process to pick out every animal in the snaps -- in fact, you can try for yourself at the University of Colorado's Where's Wally-esque " Find the Seals" page.

So the team went to Boulder Labs Inc, in Colorado, after hearing about their successes in facial recognition. "If they're able to tell faces out of the crowd and identify who is who, I thought they might be able to use that expertise with our problem up in the Arctic," said Elizabeth Weatherhead of the University of Colorado.

The newly developed software is a huge success, and was used throughout 2009 and 2010 to automate the identificaton of seals in 27,000 images. "We can send an unmanned craft out from a ship, collect 4,000 images, and have them analyzed before dinner," said Weatherhead.

This new data is giving scientists more insight into problems plaguing the Arctic, and is changing the way that biologists monitor seal populations. Just this month, NOAA proposed that ringed and bearded seals be put on the endangered species list.

Next, both teams have further ambitions for the drones. They hope to answer questions about how the ice is moving, and how polar bears are affected by the changes in ice levels.

Unmanned drones track Arctic ice and seals simultaneously

2010-12-15T19:09:00.001Z

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/15/arctic-drones

By Mark Brown | 15 December 10 _ Via Ollie Palmer

So two groups of researchers have got together for a joint observation project.

Next, both teams have further ambitions for the drones. They hope to answer questions about how the ice is moving, and how polar bears are affected by the changes in ice levels.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Unmanned drones track Arctic ice and seals simultaneously

2010-12-15T19:04:00.005Z

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/15/arctic-drones

By Mark Brown | 15 December 10

So two groups of researchers have got together for a joint observation project.

Next, both teams have further ambitions for the drones. They hope to answer questions about how the ice is moving, and how polar bears are affected by the changes in ice levels.

Unmanned drones track Arctic ice and seals simultaneously

2010-12-15T19:04:00.003Z

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/15/arctic-drones

By Mark Brown | 15 December 10

So two groups of researchers have got together for a joint observation project.

Next, both teams have further ambitions for the drones. They hope to answer questions about how the ice is moving, and how polar bears are affected by the changes in ice levels.

Unmanned drones track Arctic ice and seals simultaneously

2010-12-15T19:04:00.001Z

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/15/arctic-drones

By Mark Brown | 15 December 10

So two groups of researchers have got together for a joint observation project.

Next, both teams have further ambitions for the drones. They hope to answer questions about how the ice is moving, and how polar bears are affected by the changes in ice levels.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Unmanned drones track Arctic ice and seals simultaneously

2010-12-15T18:55:00.000Z

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-12/15/arctic-drones

By Mark Brown | 15 December 10

The icy seas of the Arctic are not the most inviting location for scientific researchers. These remote, frosty areas are extremely dangerous places for observers and manned vehicles, meaning very little data is collected in this area. So two groups of researchers have got together for a joint observation project.

Environmental scientists interested in declining sea ice levels and biologists studying seals realised how closely their two fields are interlinked. Fluctuating ice levels -- dictated by global warming, weather patterns and pollution -- have a direct knock-on effect on bearded, ringed, spotted, and ribbon seals, who rely on the sea ice for breeding, resting and hiding from predators.

So the two groups of researchers teamed up to launch an unmanned drone, hooked up with cameras, to survey the areas without risking pilots or observers. The aircraft, owned and operated by the University of Alaska, has a 10-foot wingspan and flies three- to five-mile-long stretches at altitudes ranging from 100-350 metres.

But while clumps of ice are shown in immaculate detail, the seals are little more than ambiguous dots and smudges on the photos. For any human analyst, it would be a laborious process to pick out every animal in the snaps -- in fact, you can try for yourself at the University of Colorado's Where's Wally-esque " Find the Seals" page.

So the team went to Boulder Labs Inc, in Colorado, after hearing about their successes in facial recognition. "If they're able to tell faces out of the crowd and identify who is who, I thought they might be able to use that expertise with our problem up in the Arctic," said Elizabeth Weatherhead of the University of Colorado.

The newly developed software is a huge success, and was used throughout 2009 and 2010 to automate the identificaton of seals in 27,000 images. "We can send an unmanned craft out from a ship, collect 4,000 images, and have them analyzed before dinner," said Weatherhead.

This new data is giving scientists more insight into problems plaguing the Arctic, and is changing the way that biologists monitor seal populations. Just this month, NOAA proposed that ringed and bearded seals be put on the endangered species list.

Next, both teams have further ambitions for the drones. They hope to answer questions about how the ice is moving, and how polar bears are affected by the changes in ice levels.

Protei, Oil Spill Collecting Sailing Drones @ TEDxMidAtlantic

2010-11-11T05:04:00.001Z

A few days ago, I was lucky to be on stage of TEDxMidAtlantic to present Protei, a technology in development I am working on with a bunch of brilliant people (Open_Sailing, randomwalks and V2_ folks).
Protei would be a Fleet of Oil Spill Collecting Sailing Drones. I just made this 7 minutes video that explains how it would work (also on youtube if you want to share / embed / rate). I am now working on the collaborative website and the documentation to meet Open Hardware standards - long way to go :) The video of the talk may come up sometimes, meanwhile you have my explanation here :) Sorry for my terrible french accent, hehehe

We are currently looking for ways to fund this project, if you have ideas of grants, competitions, Institutions or companies that would be interested in working on this, please comment, thanks !

Protei, Oil Spill collecting drone @ TEDxMidAtlantic

2010-11-11T04:58:00.001Z

We are currently looking for ways to fund this project, if you have ideas of grants, competitions, Institutions or companies that would be interested in working on this, please comment, thanks !

Grassroots mapping

2010-07-27T18:35:00.001+01:00

A couple of days ago, we went with the folks of LA Bucket Brigade (again!) to do some grassroots mapping in the Bay Jimmy & Wilkinson Bayou (29.45193, -89.89812), and it was superb ~ and dystopic :/

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Seen from up there is so different from what you see from the ground :

We went in those super cool (noisy though) boats :

Boat seen from the balloon (!!!) :

I took a chance to try to enhance the "photography cabin" with Sue Stoessel, Bennie Gregory and Hunter Daniel (in a previous mapping trip though):

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I'm in love with this technique Gonzo Earth and Grassrootsmapping keep on improving, also because I really need it to assess the efficiency of the oil spill collecting robot I am working on : protei.org. Here we were testing the long tail, to see how well we can sail upwind with a long tail :

that's the robot I am prototyping this week :

If you want to help on the making of the protei robot, or do some aerial photography of the oil spill, get involved at LA Bucket Brigade, contact Shannon Dosemagen <shannon@labucketbrigade.org>, or Hunter Daniel <hunterdaniel@gmail.com> 901-550-7667 directly by phone to arrange a trip in the sun :)

TEDxBoston : the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

2010-07-26T22:03:00.001+01:00

This is NOT an Official TED video, it is simply an archive of the TEDxBoston Adventure.

What academic light can two Boston College professors shed on the nation’s largest environmental disaster?
What lessons for oil extraction, transport, crisis prevention, and response can be drawn from this present calamity? Meanwhile, can a 2010 TED Fellow on the frontline in the Gulf contribute to the design of autonomous robots that collect oil?
Join Boston College Professors Noah Snyder of the Geology and Geophysics department and Zygmunt Plater of the Law School for an interactive briefing on the situation in the Gulf. Professor Snyder is the Director of BC's interdisciplinary Environmental Studies program. Professor Plater served on the State of Alaska Oil Spill Commission during the Exxon Valdez crisis; he has been involved with Alaskan efforts to assist Gulf communities in the aftermath of the BP Gulf blowout and attempts to draw systemic lessons for the future from the Exxon Valdez and the BP blowout. We also will be joined via Skype by Cesar Harada, a former MIT researcher in New Orleans. Ask critical questions about environmental science and law, as well as some of Harada’s other ambitions, from creating the International Ocean Station as an open-source architecture project to crowdsourcing environmental data on the web.

Thanks to John Werner and Grier Tumas.

Devlin Hall, Room 201, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467

DATE: Thursday, July 22nd, late morning

TEDxBoston : http://tedxboston.org/
John Werner : http://www.citizenschools.org
Zygmunt Plater : http://bc.edu/schools/law/fac-staff/deans-faculty/platerz.html
Noah Snyder : http://www2.bc.edu/~snyderno/
Shannon Dosemagem : http://labucketbrigade.org/
Cesar Harada : http://cesarharada.com/
Oil collecting Robot : http://protei.org

Water-scraper by Sarly Adre Bin Sarkum

2010-07-20T16:26:00.010+01:00

Article from : http://www.evolo.us

Throughout history, through his need for civilization, man has created buildings that consume resources. The skyscraper is the epitome of this voracious consumption, its highly dense grouping of activities ie work, play, rest etc has become an ominous harbingers of our ecologically bleak future. As a reaction to the modern skyscrapers and its dilemmas the world’s eminent minds have created many variations of the skyscraper in the form of the antithetical subscrapers, groundscrapers and even depth scraper. Yet still they still struggle to achieve zero input/zero output in terms of resource production. There are greenscrappers which , though themselves are ecologically sound, are tied to and urban fabric and interconnection of production networks which are still contributing negatively towards the environment.

The ^hO₂+ scraper proposes to break free of the urban fabric and functions as self-sufficient ambassadors in the sea. The ^hO₂+ scraper is an autonomous floating unit of livable, functional and self sustaining space which will function, in a collective manner, as a floating city. It is self sufficient as it generates its own power through wave, wind, current, solar, bio etc. and it generates its own food through farming, aquaculture, hydroponics etc. It carries with its own small forest on top its back and supports places for users to live and works in its depths. Its bioluminescent tentacles provide sea fauna a place to live and congregate while collecting energy through its kinetic movements. Such sustainability strategies aim to ultimately create and provide an oasis with ‘Zero’ negative impacts to the environment, not only that but also improves on it hence the ’Plus’. Aptly as poetic antithesis to a skyscraper which goes up into the heavens the ^hO₂+ scraper goes down to the depths of the sea.

The main components of the programme for the ^hO₂+ scraper consist of resource generation (i.e. power, food, air etc), living, work, play, waste treatment and maintenance. The programme is spread evenly in accordance to the proximity of any specific required external resource i.e. the wind generators are placed of the roof garden island, the livestock farming component is also placed there, the living areas are placed just below sea level where the natural light is the best etc.

The building itself is kept upright using a system of ballast and balancing tanks. The tentacles also serve as balancing elements as they, in generating their power, are constantly moving with the rhythm of the tide. The buoyancy and ballast controls are placed at the lowest portions to create the proper counterforce for keeping the building upright.

In the finality, we envision a future where land as a resource will be scarce; it is only natural progression that we create our own. Approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is ocean, even more if climate change has its way, hence it is only natural progression that we will populate the seas someday. We picture a new metapolis, created from a collection of ^hO₂+ scrapers, as a city that does not consume nature but creates and produces nature. In the end becoming ^hO₂+ Cities.

We need something to clean up the ocean!

2010-07-13T18:37:00.001+01:00

Carl Safina on TED. We need to clean up the ocean!

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Hacklab at Sea

2010-07-13T14:44:00.001+01:00

Just saw this on: http://marin.cc/seahacklab, via

@tinkerlondon

Hacklab at the sea July 12-18

12.-18.7.2010 Hacklab at the sea (CFP DL 26.6.)

M.A.R.I.N. invites short proposals to attend Hacklab at the Sea, an informal workshop on an island in the Finnish archipelago combining tinkering and brainstorming of ideas. The workshop explores sensory experience of marine environment and ecologies. Participants should all do hands-on tinkering with the likes of but not limited to, sensors, sensor networks, DIY electronics, low power computing, and alternative energy production.

Hacklab is set in the Finnish archipelago

12.-18.7.2010 Hacklab at the sea location:
a small island in Naantali, Turku Archipelago, Finland (35 min from Turku + 10 min by boat)

Possible approaches for tinkering:
- circuit bending for floating structures
(radio controlled boats, subs, floating sensor stations, wireless units)
- DIY microscopy
- Solar panels, water kinetic energy
- Sensor networks
- Non-conventional locating and mapping

WE PROVIDE:

Lab setup
400 W wind power
920W photovoltaic solar panels
800 Ah of battery
Gas soldering irons
3G Internet -> WiFi local (no high bandwidth stuff)

Housing
Shared cabin housing for 8 people max, additional space in 2 tents.

Cooking
Small indoors, and a great outdoors kitchen with 2 woks, fish smoking unit and BBQ.
Fridge. Fresh water brought from mainland.
I will provide potatoes, carrots, onions, bread, milk, cheese, cooking oil, basic spice.
Other ingredients you need to chip in to buy, or help to fish or gather (chantarell may be in season).

Sauna
Wood heated sauna is the place for great conversations, relaxing and washing up.
Rain water collected for hair.
Please bring eco friendly shampoos…

Leisure
2-seater sea kayak
rowing boat
fishing boat
sea to swim in, rocks to lay on.

Time
Minimum stay 4 days, preferred the whole time.

YOU SHOULD BRING:

Bring your own low power computers + electronics, towel, sheets, and special food and drink you may like. Please charge up everything before you come.
Bring cameras, laptops. Leisure things are charged last if we would run out of juice.
Please note that it is an island, and it takes a boat ride and 20 mins of driving to get to a supermarket.

MONEY
This is a non-funded workshop, so travel and production costs are paid by each participant.

Basic food and prodution of the small scale thing is volunteer work by the host, Tapio Mäkelä, and premises are kindly lent for the workshop by his parents.

TRAVEL
If you come by boat, I will give you both a visual map and co-ordinates for your GPS. Also bicycle is a great method to come to the harbor.

For those who come via air or land, I will organize journeys from Turku onwards. How to get to Turku from abroad: some airlines fly to Turku, most to Helsinki, Ryanair flies to Tampere. Bot HEL and TRE airports offer good train connections to Turku. Also there is an 8 hour ferry connection to Turku from Stockholm.
Good overall travel to finland - - http://www.ebookers.fi- - Does not include offers from the cheapest airlines: http://www.easyjet.com, http://ryanair.com, http://www.airberlin.com

RELATED PROJECTS worth looking into:
Regional links: Capsula Baltic Sea expedition
Approach at Sea by Birgitta Silfverhielm
Arctic Perspective Initiative

YOUR PROPOSAL
- what would you like to do at the workshop?
- what skills would you like to share?
- how do you find marine ecology relevant to your practice, or vice versa?
- tell a bit about yourself
- and include a few URLs to relevant projects

Please e-mail your proposal to tapio@translocal.net latest by June 26th, Saturday.
I will reply to everyone by June 28th.

M.A.R.I.N. - Media Art Research Interdisciplinary Network - is a networked residency and research initiative, integrating artistic and scientific research on ecology of the marine and cultural ecosystems. Next summer (2011) M.A.R.I.N. will host residencies and workshops with several partners at the Baltic Sea.

Download web flyer here.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

Presentation of Halley VI Research Station

2010-06-11T18:07:00.001+01:00

Mobile, modular and designed to survive the extremes of the Antarctic, Hugh Broughton Architects’ new Halley VI research station consists of a series of pods which will house researchers from the British Antarctic Survey. Built to withstand high winds and winter temperatures of -50°C, the raised habitats will also reduce the station’s impact on the continent’s pristine environment. Now in place on the Brunt Ice Shelf, the futuristic structures take on an otherwordly appearance when seen in-situ against the blowing snowdrifts and icy blue sky of the frozen continent.

Hugh Broughton Architects will be among the speakers at super-collider's next live event, GREEN/SPACE

via super-collider.com

NB - this whole article has been lifted shamelessly from the fantastic super-collider. If you're in London, do subscribe to their weekly science emails!

Posted via web from Open_Sailing

BP oil spill: Will the 'sweeping arm system' from the Dutch help?

2010-06-02T16:33:00.003+01:00

The Dutch government is supplying six sweeping arm systems for the BP oil spill. The technology involves a skimmer that picks up oil and water and then separates the two.

Oil floats around a rig at the site of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico near the coast of Louisiana, Monday.

Jae C. Hong/AP

The Dutch government is giving BP officials in the Gulf of Mexico advanced oil recovery technology it says will be more effective than previous efforts.

The technology, called the sweeping arm system, was developed by the Dutch in the early 1970s and has been used to successfully combat oil spills – including high-profile disasters involving the Sea Empress, off the coast of Wales, in 1996; and the Prestige, off the coast of Spain, in 2002.

On Sunday, the Dutch sent six such systems by airfreight to Houston. They’re also sending a six-member team that can reassemble the parts, load them onto tankers, and train a workforce from T&T Marine – a Galveston, Texas, contractor that BP hired to lead the emergency response effort. The operation should be ready for the BP oil spill in 10 days, says Sjon Huisman, an adviser with the Netherlands’s Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.

IN PICTURES: Louisiana oil spill

The sweeping arm system involves a delicate and slow-moving skimmer that works on the surface of the water, picking up a top layer of oil and water. It moves the concentrated mix to a storage tank where the water and oil are separated and then the water is pumped overboard.

In a press conference Tuesday, US Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen would neither confirm nor deny that the technology would be used in the Gulf oil spill. Allen would only say that recovery officials were “reaching out to the Netherlands, Canada, and Mexico” for technology assistance. “We’re looking at all sources,” he said.

Dutch companies that manufacture the sweeping arm system first contacted BP officials April 23, three days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, according to Mr. Huisman, who spoke by phone from his office in The Hague Tuesday. After receiving little reply, the companies turned to his department for help in reaching out to the US State Department, Huisman says.

“We specifically asked those companies that if you have a firm order from BP or the US government, then we can make the arrangements available,” he says. The US Coast Guard made a formal request for the systems May 18, according to Huisman.

The six systems that are being sent are new and are from a special reserve that the Dutch government keeps on hand to combat oil spills off its own shores. Dutch law requires the government to combat oil spills, not the oil-rig operators.

The Dutch government is acting as a conduit between the US and Dutch companies and is not asking for payment, Huisman says. It is relinquishing six systems from its supply of 23 only because Koseq, the Dutch company that manufactures the systems, builds to order and had none available. The government’s only requirement, Huisman says, is that Koseq resupply the government with six more systems when is ready.

The system can collect 20,000 tons of oil at sea in three days, he says.

Calm weather conditions are crucial to the success of the operation, says Wierd Koops, an engineer who helped develop the system and is now a consultant with oil-spill recovery efforts. He spoke from his home in Anna Paulowna in the Netherlands Tuesday. Recovery operators, he says, need to use the system as close to the source of the leak as possible, where oil is at its densest. That makes it easier to collect the oil and separate it from the seawater.

“With this amount of oil, you should try to remove it as soon as possible. Nature will do the rest,” Mr. Koops says. The recovered oil can be reused as fuel for large tankers, he says, but the cost of its recovery exceeds the benefits of its reuse, he adds.

Huisman and Koops would only speculate why recovery officials apparently waited about a month to request the technology. One reason may be Environmental Protection Agency regulations that prevent discharging oil-affected water back into the source.

The regulations are outdated and were not meant to address an oil spill of the magnitude in the Gulf, says Bruce Johnson, professor emeritus of oceanic engineering at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

“ ‘One size fits all’ doesn’t work for all oil spills. This is a monster,” Mr. Johnson says. “If you could suck up 80 percent of the oil and discharge 5 percent, you are still catching 75 percent, which is infinitely more than they are currently doing.”

Open_Sailing is addressing the Oil Spill

2010-06-01T22:12:00.000+01:00

usually we'd post here burning hot news but since Open_Sailing is not undertaking research activities on the Gulf, we're pushing content right here:

https://sites.google.com/a/opensailing.net/www/labs/oil-spill/news

So far we have :

- Oil Spill trajectory with drifters

- Scientists: Oil spill may affect South Florida

- Google Oil Spill crisis response

- Tracking and predicting the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

- Microbial degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons in a polluted tropical stream

- Pollution collector biogradable robot

- Gulf Sea Grant

- NOAA Response website

- How big is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?

- Oil busting robots

and much more articles coming on this thread, so watch out :

https://sites.google.com/a/opensailing.net/www/labs/oil-spill/news

We also have a great photo galery of the spill : https://sites.google.com/a/opensailing.net/www/labs/oil-spill/nature/galery-1

Please add comments, send us links to great pictures etc...

Oil Spill

2010-05-28T02:20:00.001+01:00

Open_Sailing is now looking into ocean pollution recovery systems. This will happen again and again, let's be ready.

Posted via email from Open_Sailing

New Age of Exploration: Robots Swarm into Land, Sea, and Space

2010-05-24T15:18:00.004+01:00

New Age of Exploration: Robots Swarm into Land, Sea, and Space

The Scarlet Knight glider surfaces for pickup off the coast of Spain after its 5-month voyage across the Atlantic.

Has the age of human explorers come to an end? There are several projects underway that are sending robots where humans dare not tread. Scientists are ramping up to deploy hundreds of aquatic drones into the ocean depths, following the first successful transatlantic voyage of a robot last year. Swarms of miniaturized rovers the size of a penny will soon defuse mines, and thousands of terrain-ready robots will test rock composition on other planets. Machines will continue to explore where humans can’t, and swarm robotics is leading the way.

In 2009, Rutgers University launched an aquatic glider that became the first robot to cross an ocean. Nearly eight feet long, the device—named the Scarlet Knight, after Rutgers’ sports teams—spent months collecting data on the Atlantic. What makes the voyage remarkable is that the glider was at times directed from remote locations—once from as far away as Antarctica—using satellite, GPS and other technologies. Rutgers researchers breathed a sigh of relief with Scarlet’s success. Their first glider, launched the previous year, was presumably smashed by a shark before reaching the other side. Be sure to check out the video after the break.

Oceans cover nearly three quarters of the Earth’s surface, making fleets of data-collecting seabots invaluable to retrieving information about marine ecology, climate change, and the formation of hurricanes. Currently such data is gathered using satellites, buoys, and costly manned research vessels. Rutgers University oceanographer Scott Glenn says their new concept is all about omnipresence—getting a complete picture of what’s happening in our oceans. And to get a more complete picture, why not deploy more robots?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) agrees. The NSF recently gave $1 million to the Scripps Institute to fill the ocean with a fleet of drones that could potentially measure ocean drift, give detailed accounts of marine habitats, and collect other useful information. The Autonomous Underwater Explorer (AUE) project—led by the institute’s Jules Jaffe and Peter Franks—will eventually employ hundreds of robots that operate with a swarm mentality. There are many potential benefits to using swarm robotics. For instance, an individual drone like Scarlett can only collect data from its immediate vicinity, but a swarm can describe its relative movement to convey a larger picture. A swarm is also more resilient; judging by the fate of Scarlet’s predecessor, strength in numbers is a selling point indeed. Watch the NJN news segment below.

Once mass production begins on these new underwater drones, costs will drop. And at a significantly lower price tag compared to current methods, we may soon see their numbers grow exponentially. Even while Earth’s last great frontier increases in popularity, we haven’t yet turned away from exploring other planets. There are also a number of terrestrial bots in the works that will make poking around on land more efficient, too. Scaling down mechanical systems has made way for the Miniature Autonomous Robotic Vehicle (MARV)—one of the world’s smallest autonomous robots. Developed by Sandia National Laboratories, MARV was designed to complete difficult tasks like disabling mines and checking for chemical and biological weapons. An on-board computer can steer the vehicle and make other decisions, and at one cubic inch in size, that’s no small feat. With increased mobility and more intelligence, it’s only a matter of time before swarms of miniaturized rovers like these are sent on planetary missions.

At one cubic inch, MARV is one of the world's smallest autonomous robots.

The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) supported research around a new approach to Solar System exploration that would deploy a large number of small spherical mobile robots (“microbots”) to moderate planets (including our own) and high temperature bodies, like Venus. Hundreds or thousands of robots would operate over rugged terrain while taking samples and measuring rock composition, allowing large-scale analysis to send home more details of what’s happening where no man has gone before.

Sending robots to do the dirty work of humans is central to the dogma of robotics research. But these advancements shouldn’t be seen as an end to the era of human exploration, but rather as the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between man and his creation. Just as humans are learning to cooperate more efficiently in numbers, we are teaching our robots to do the same. What remains to be seen is what exactly we may learn in return.

TED Talk: Jeremy Jackson

2010-05-23T16:59:00.003+01:00

The survival of human life depends on the restoration of the Oceans.

Google Maps API upgrade

2010-05-22T12:19:00.002+01:00

Good news for fellow map enthusiasts! Google have released a new API for Google Maps during their I/0 conference. This means that it's easy to style maps according to your need – this might have been very useful during the creation of Open_Sailing's disaster forecast map.

Styles

Map

Red

Map

Countries

Map

Night

Map

Blue

Map

Greyscale

Map

No roads

Map

Mixed

Map

Chilled

Army of smartphone chips could emulate the human brain

2010-05-09T19:35:00.000+01:00

Original post : http://www.newscientist.com/

04 May 2010 by Paul Mark

Magazine issue 2758. Subscribe and save

For similar stories, visit the The Human Brain Topic Guide

IF YOU have a smartphone, you probably have a slice of Steve Furber's brain in your pocket. By the time you read this, his 1-billion-neuron silicon brain will be in production at a microchip plant in Taiwan.

Computer engineers have long wanted to copy the compact power of biological brains. But the best mimics so far have been impractical, being simulations running on supercomputers.

Furber, a computer scientist at the University of Manchester, UK, says that if we want to use computers with even a fraction of a brain's flexibility, we need to start with affordable, practical, low-power components.

"We're using bog-standard, off-the-shelf processors of fairly modest performance," he says.

Furber won't come close to copying every property of real neurons, saysHenry Markram, head of Blue Brain. This is IBM's attempt to simulate a brain with unsurpassed accuracy on a Blue Gene supercomputer at the Swiss Institute for Technology, Lausanne. "It's a worthy aim, but brain-inspired chips can only produce brain-like functions," he says.

That's good enough for Furber, who wants to start teaching his brain-like computer about the world as soon as possible. His first goal is to teach it how to control a robotic arm, before working towards a design to control a humanoid. A robot controller with even a dash of brain-like properties should be much better at tasks like image recognition, navigation and decision-making, says Furber.

"Robots offer a natural, sensory environment for testing brain-like computers," says Furber. "You can instantly tell if it is being useful."

Called Spinnaker - for Spiking Neural Network Architecture - the brain is based on a processor created in 1987 by Furber and colleagues at Acorn Computers in Cambridge, UK, makers of the seminal BBC Microcomputer.

Although the chip was made for a follow-up computer that flopped, the ARM design at its heart lived on, becoming the most common "embedded" processor in devices like e-book readers and smartphones.

But coaxing any computer into behaving like a brain is tough. Both real neurons and computer circuits communicate using electrical signals, but in biology the "wires" carrying them do not have fixed roles as in electronics. The importance of a particular neural connection, or synapse, varies as the network learns by balancing the influence of the different signals being received. This synaptic "weighting" must be dynamic in a silicon brain, too.

To coordinate its 'neurons' the chip mimics the way real neurons communicate using 'spikes' in voltage

The chips under construction in Taiwan contain 20 ARM processor cores, each modelling 1000 neurons. With 20,000 neurons per chip, 50,000 chips will be needed to reach the target of 1 billion neurons.

A memory chip next to each processor stores the changing synaptic weights as simple numbers that represent the importance of a given connection at any moment. Initially, those will be loaded from a PC, but as the system gets bigger and smarter, says Furber, "the only computer able to compute them will be the machine itself".

Another brain-like behaviour his chips need to master is to communicate coordinated "spikes" of voltage. A computer has no trouble matching the speed at which individual neurons spike - about 10 times per second - but neurons work in very much larger, parallel groups than silicon logic gates.

In a brain there is no top-down control to coordinate their actions because the basic nature of individual neurons means that they work together in an emergent, bottom-up way.

Spinnaker cannot mimic that property, so it relies on a miniature controller to direct spike traffic, similar to one of the routers in the internet's backbone. "We can route to more than 4 billion neurons," says Furber, "many more than we need."

While the Manchester team await the arrival of their chips, they have built a cut-down version with just 50 neurons and have put the prototype through its paces in the lab. They have created a virtual environment in which the silicon brain controls a Pac-Man-like program that learns to hunt for a virtual doughnut.

"It shows that our four years designing the system haven't been wasted," says Furber. He hopes to have a 10,000-processor version working later this year.

As they attempt to coax brain-like behaviour from phone chips, others are working with hardware which may have greater potential.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's research arm, is funding a project called Synapse. Wei Lu of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, is working on a way of providing synaptic weights with memristors, first made in 2008 (New Scientist, 3 May 2008, p 26).

Handily, their most basic nature is brain-like: at any one moment a memristor's resistance depends on the last voltage placed across it. This rudimentary "memory" means that simple networks of memristors form weighted connections like those of neurons. This memory remains without drawing power, unlike the memory chips needed in Spinnaker. "Memristors are pretty neat," says Lu.

Their downside is that they are untested, though. "Synapse is an extremely ambitious project," says Furber. "But ambition is what drives this field. No one knows the right way to go."

Hydrogenase by Vincent Callebaut

2010-05-09T19:11:00.000+01:00

Hydrogenase by Vincent Callebaut
May 7th, 2010

Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has designed a conceptual transport system that would involve airships powered by seaweed.

Called Hydrogenase, the project envisages that by 2030 there could be farms in the ocean producing biofuel from seaweed and acting as hubs for the aircraft.

Here’s a lot of text from Callebaut:

“HYDROGENASE”

ALGAE FARM TO RECYCLE CO2 FOR BIO-HYDROGEN AIRSHIP

Between engineering and biology, Hydrogenase is one of the first projects of bio-mimicry which draws its inspiration from the beauty and the shapes of the nature, but also and especially from the qualities of its materials and its self-manufacturing processes. The new green revolution is really in progress and enables us to design the air mobility of the foil after shock, 100% self-sufficient in energy and zero carbon emission! This inhabitated vertical aircraft inaugures a clean and ethic mobility to meet the needs of the population en distress touched by the natural and sanitary catastrophes, and all that without any runway! Its architecture is subversive and fundamentally critic towards the ways of living of our contemporary society that we have to reinvent totally! Let’s take off thanks to biofuels and let’s propel to the eco-responsible transport of the future!

2015: Biofuels of the 3rd generation, the challenge of a sustainable mobility

The price of the fuel has just reached a new historical record by passing 75 dollars the barrel in 2010. Within 10 years, we could reach the famous “Hubbert Peak”, the precise moment from which the worldwide fuel production will begin to decrease because of shortages. In such a context, the massive resort to renewable energies and nanotechnologies, that do not emit gas with greenhouse effect, is becoming an absolute economical, technological and political priority! From Queensland’s university to the Karlsruhe’s one, going through Berkeley in California, the « third generation » biofuels are in gestation and will revolutionize our future sustainable land or air mobility. Their main strengths: they do not compete either with the food cultures nor with the forest spaces and can be developed naturally everywhere in the world even in arid territories, the whole tending to a targeted bio-remediation of the industrial CO2.

Able to produce electricity and biofuel without emit CO2 or other polluting substances, the hydrogen especially is nowadays such as a very promising clean energy source. Therefore (its production that respects the environment and in sufficient quantity) is a study theme that interests the biggest scientific international groups. Actually, at the end of the 90s it has been discovered that the private sulphur micro-seaweeds go from the oxygen production (classical photosynthesis) to the hydrogen production. Such as a growing tree uses the solar radiance to manufacture organic material, we aim today at producing by photosynthesis some dihydrogen (i.e. gaseous hydrogen) from living micro-organisms as seaweeds from the « Chlamydomonas reinhardtii » family that owns enzyme of hydrogenase type.

According to biologists, the output obtained by a farm with micro-seaweeds would be superior to those made currently with farming means to produce biodiesel or bioethanol. This could be estimated at 1000 litres of hydrogen for 330 grams of chlorophyll per day whereas for example colza produces roughly only 1000 litres of oil per hectare. According to industrials a hectare of seaweeds could thus produce organically 120 times more biofuels than a hectare of colza, soya or sunflower.

Moreover, a farm with seaweeds is a true miniature biochemical power station able to absorb CO2 as main nutrient by photosynthesis accelerated by producing hydrogen in vitro or in bioreactors. This natural process, nourishing itself with our waste enables thus to recycle under the effect of the sun, in seaweeds or sea water baths, up to 80% of carbonic gas and NOx (nitrogen oxides also very impacting on the greenhouse effect). The global organic cycle enables therefore to revaluate our carboned rejections such as for example those are coming from filters with particles of our cars, reactors of our airplanes or also our rockets coming from thermal power stations with coal or gas.

2020: Towards an aerial revolution and agree generation of airships?

The builders of airplanes get involved at maxima until 2020 according to an international agreement to be less polluting (reduction by 80% of their rejection in nitrogen oxides), to be thriftier in fuel (reduction of 20% of the fuel quantity by carried passenger) and finally to be more silent (reduction of 10 decibels, i.e. twice less noise). But what will happen when there will be no more fuel? The end of air freight in 2030 ? According to forecasts, every year from 2010, 200 billion of Chinese people will fly to spend holidays abroad. After the last born A380 of Airbus and the 777-200LR of Boeing, the airplanes of the future will not have such as their previous energy-consumers to be designed without taking into account the notions of sustainable development and the respect of the environment. A theme totally ignored fifteen years ago in this sector! This transport must be eco-designed from renewable energies and present a statement of carbon emission equal to zero!
No airplane, no helicopter, no aircraft, the project « Hydrogenase » marks a new generation of state-of-the-art hybrid airships. It is dedicated to humanitarian missions, rescue operations, installation of platforms for scientific studies, and of course to air freight. Then, complementary activities could be entertainment, eco-tourism, hotel, human transports, air media coverage and territorial waters surveillance.

This mode of transport is certainly less interesting than the piggyback or sea freight and slower than airplane; however it needs less infrastructure and multimodal platforms (runway, freeways, ship/truck alternation…). It consumes thus less territory and will progressively enable to heal our landscapes slashed by the transport network leading to a massive deforestation. Therefore, it costs 10 times less for the carriage of heavy loads as well as traveller transport, and everything without damaging the planet! For the specialists of logistical transport facing the long lasting absence of appropriated road or airport infrastructures in many parts of the world (desert and oceans), this new generation is also very expected to link production sites and using sites. Moreover, flying free health care centres or even country hospitals could also interfere during natural catastrophes, where lives could be in danger. It could also explore and help underprivileged territories of the third world by carrying the raw materials of our globalised alimentation to those who are hungry in remote places!

Hydrogenase is thus a jumbo jet vessel (DGP) that flies at an average of 2 000 meters high. This cargo measures almost 400 meters high for 250 000m3. It can carry up to 200 tons of freight at 175 km/h (i.e. twice the speed of a ship and more than one and a half time than the one of a truck). Seven times slower than an airplane, it has an action potential between 5 and 10 000km and re-teach our contemporary travellers the long time of sea cruises and the praise of the slowness. The history of the transports which was until now summarized in a study that reveals to always go faster, is soon finished for the benefit of “better travel” in airship!

2030: Hydrogenase, the 100% self-sufficient organic airship of the future

The project Hydrogenase brings to question the « always faster » of our frenetic society and thinks differently to the mobility and services. With bionic look, this inhabited vertical airship sets in the heart of a floating farm of seaweeds that reload it directly with bio-hydrogen. These two interdependent entities are both nomad and organic, the first one flies in the sky and the second one on the seas and oceans.

The proactive ship flourishing in the air :

The semi-rigid not pressurised airship stretches vertically around an arborescent spine that air-dynamically twists on more than 400 meters high and 180 meters of diameter. Forming a big flower ready to open, the spaces divide in cross under the shape of petals that welcome respectively the main sectors of activities: housing, offices, scientific laboratories and entertainment. The stem around the one these functional petals structure themselves, welcome the vertical circulations, the technical premises and the goods warehouses for the freight.

These 4 inhabited spaces are included between 4 great bubbles inflated with bio-hydrogen, a renewable energy. These bubbles are made with a rigid hull in light alloy shaped with twisted longitudinal beams linked together by wide sinusoidal rings. Every end is finished by a cone, and the one at the bottom, the most sharpened one carries the stabilizers and the rudders of deepness and of direction. This framework is covered by a double layer of waterproof, fireproof, glazed canvas to reduce the resistance to advancement. The in-between is divided into slices in which there are small balloons full of helium. The helium mattress in periphery enables to protect the balloons of bio-hydrogen and helium, the remaining 30% are provided by the aerodynamic of the airship twisted fuselage with the speed, as for an airplane.

This type of airship is of course heavier than a flexible aerostat of same cubing because of the weight of the structure, but it can reach higher speeds, thanks to the solidity of its hull in titan, and carry more tons thanks to the ability to build always bigger layers (10000 m3 in 1900, 70 000 m3 in 1924 and 200 000m3 in 1938, 250 000 m3 in 2010). What distinguishes also such a machine from classical aircrafts from the past is that this one is heavier than the air and flies thanks to the Archimedes’ thrust (that does every balloon or aircraft), to helixes or at its subtle twisted aerodynamic that enables to reduce the oscillations of the limited layer. The fact that it is heavier than the air enables actually descents faster without having especially to eject gas. Moreover, the sustentation is based on the compression and the decompression of the biogas. Hydrogenase can thus be lighter or heavier according to the wished needs and the height.

In order to build a proactive airship with positive energy, we also have integrated all the renewable energies. Actually, whereas the inflatable bubbles are glue-backed with flexible photovoltaic cells the four wings of the vessel are each of them inlayed with turbo-propellers with recuperation of energy. These 20 wind propellers are articulated around orbital rings which enable them to go from the horizontal position at the take-off to the vertical position assuring the vessel a navigation speed of 175km/h. The inhabited spaces integrate by steps vegetable gardens photopurifyng the used waters, the biomasses damaging the organic waters and loaded fuel cells. Nothing is lost, everything is recycled and transformed!

On top of absorbing the solar energy, this flying castle draws its inspiration from the biomimicry technologies and is built in lighter and more resistant composite materials (fibreglass and carbon fibre) in order to reduce the weight of its structure at the maximum. The fitting is thus self cleaning, in nanostructured glass inspired from the lotus leave that does not get wet. The vessel is thus made of « intelligent layers » avoiding for example the accumulation of ice or snow and « self-separable ceramics » offering a bigger resistance to the split and that fill the cracks. This bionic coating draws also its inspiration from shark skin that enables without being toxic to avoid the adhesion of bacteria whereas the four wings present irregularities of surface, as the finely beaded whale fins do, in order to reduce the turbulences. The green industry meets thus through this bionic prototype the expectations of the consumption, the always more demanding antipollution regulation and the rarefaction of resources.

The floating organic farm on seas and oceans:

The floating farm is a true organic purifying station composed of 4 carbon wells in which the green seaweeds recycle our carbonated waste brought by ships. This is directly dedicated to feed organically in biohydrogen the proactive airship. It replaces thus the petrol station as the runway for traditional airplanes and looks like a weaving of fine amphibian laces!

Actually, it sets up as much underneath as on top of the sea surface and respects the quadripartite sharing out in petals of the whole Hydrogenase project. Continuing the 4 wings of the pneumatic tower, 4 great arches structure this circular platform and distribute vertically all the levels of the central ring inhabited by the scientists. At the surface, these arches are covered by thermal and photovoltaic solar shields whereas under the water they are set with 32 hydro-turbines transforming the tidal energy of the sea streams into electricity.

Energically self-sufficient, this farm organises on a radiant plan, the seaweed bioreactors exposed to the zenith sun under the lenticular accelerators for a better photochemical output. The whole set forms four gardens dedicated to the accelerated photosynthesis where we access through marinas setting the exchanges between this true new floating city and the surrounding coasts. On top of producing clean energy, this floating purifying station is also an incredible observatory of the sea fauna and flora that fight for the protection of ecosystems and for the revitalization of the beds of corals and of endangered species. It is a true cleaner of seas and oceans by skimming and damaging as main nutrient the floating waste banks of our energy-consuming civilisation.

Hydrogenase is thus a project of environmental resiliency that will enable to invent a clean mobility according to a « cradle to cradle » cycle respecting our planet by assuring also the technological evolution of the human adventure ! As biotechnological prototype, it aims at being the symbiosis of men actions and their positive impacts on the nature. By imitating the processes of natural ecosystems, it deals with reinventing the industrial, town-planning and architectural processes to produce clean solutions and create an industry where everything is reused, either back to the ground under the shape of not toxic « organic nutrients », or back to the industry under the shape of “technical nutrients” able to be indefinitely recycled.

A Primer: Can Algae Replace Gas?

2010-05-09T18:53:00.000+01:00

Via Nadine Freischlad from Open_Sailing
Original Post : http://www.good.is/post/a-primer-can-algae-replace-gas/
by Cliff Kuang on March 11, 2009 at 2:01 pm PDT

Can algae, that banal scourge of the swimming pool, fuel an energy-independent America? The hype is certainly there. News reports have been flowing quick and steady about the potential of algal biofuels. Just yesterday, Treehugger proclaimed them the #1 green technology in the offing.

But you’d be excused for still being baffled. No one is answering the most basic questions: What is algae technology, and why is it so promising? Why isn’t it already available? What are the challenges that remain to be solved?

What Are Algae?
Algae are some of the planet’s simplest organisms. Comprised of just a single cell, or sometimes a few cells, they're slightly more complex than bacteria but far less complex than most plants.

But like plants, algae are loaded with chloroplasts, which lets them create energy using just carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. Algae use this energy to reproduce or to store it for leaner times. Some algae in particular store energy as lipids (aka, oils). These lipids, in turn, can be readily refined into basically any hydrocarbon you like, from biodiesel to jet fuel—and the whole process is carbon-neutral. That's the miracle of algae.

Plants can also be used to create lipids—these are the biofuel crops such as camelina being developed by companies like Targeted Growth—but they still waste a good deal of their energy on things like stems and seeds. Algae, by contrast, are simpler, with fewer outputs, and thus far more efficient. Their per-acre yields are so high that we could conceivably produce all the oil we need with a space that, at maximum, is just 1/7 the area we now use to grow corn.

Unlike many other biofuels, algae doesn’t displace food crops. That’s significant because one fundamental dilemma with biofuels is that they’ll crush our economy with rising food costs, by competing with edible crops for arable land.

The Challenges
But algae aren't great multitaskers. “Algae usually just reproduce or make oil,” says Tom Todaro, CEO of Sustainable Oils. “They don’t usually do both. Under favorable conditions they’d rather multiply than store their energy.”

So there's a dilemma: You want your algae to multiply so you have a lot of it, but if they're spending energy multiplying they won’t make any oil. That’s why companies such as Sustainable Oils are trying to engineer algae that balance the two imperatives, multiplying rapidly in the first few days of life, and making oil thereafter.

Volume is another problem: No one has ever produced as much algae as we’d need to actually start replacing gasoline at a meaningful scale. Sustainable Oils is just breaking ground on a 50,000-gallon test facility in Colorado, but industrial levels would require plants that accommodate 100 million gallons of algae.

It’s not as simple as just building bigger algae ponds. No one knows exactly how to cultivate that much algae—from how to feed them all carbon dioxide, to how they’ll behave and interact at such great quantity. Just getting them sunlight is a problem. Algae usually sits in a thin layer atop water, soaking up sunlight; Building huge, shallow ponds is way too expensive, so we’ll need to find ways to get sunlight deeper into vats. (And remember, if we use lots of electriciy in the process the whole projecct is moot).

Again, biology is being marshaled to solve these problems; some have explored creating algae with physical properties that allow sunlight to soak deeper into a pool (so algae to grow at greater depths). Others pursuing engineering solutions have created bioreactors, which churn algae during cultivation, or grow them in tubes. But bioreactors, while promising, are expensive. “You have to understand that oil is the world’s most efficient market in the world,” says Mark Tegen, CEO of Inventure, whose company refines algae into fuel compounds. “You have to wring every cost out to make it competitive, and biology is where you get your bang for the buck.”

Then comes a third problem: To release the algae's oils they have to be dried out. Companies like Inventure already do this, but again, industrial scales may require new technologies. Centrifuging isn’t practical, but algae are being bred that naturally excrete their oil, while the chemical and mechanical processes for separating the oils artificially are still being refined.

The Prospects
Despite these problems, there’s good reason for optimism. After all, money has been flowing into the sector, and it’s not just crazy bubble money—some of the savviest investors in the world are making big bets because the advances have come so quickly. “My bet is that we’ll see something in 5-10 years,” says Tegen. “The scene is like tech in 1996. We’re living in dog years and there’s mayhem. But in just the last two years alone, the advancements have been shocking.”

Photo from flickr by Steve Jurvetson