A report on the Mothership project
Saving the Japan of the Future!
Planning and Development of the
Mothership Aerial Platform Project
Now in English
Hey, i just posted on this!
Read it through carefully - they are having fun flying kites!
They’re impressed with the kite-flying efforts in Europe and America!
And they’re headed for the Jet Stream!
They sound a lot like AWE here 10 years ago.
They are not quite sure whether it will be for producing energy, or maybe a wifi repeater. or, well, something - maybe a giant crane for lifting objects too heavy for airships or helicopters - anyway, they will come up with something… someday… but for now, they’re having fun! 
They are asking the right questions: how can the wing be as large as possible, and how harnessing high altitude winds, while optimizing solar component?
Page 72:
“Wing area of 1000,000 m²: approximately 1,400 units
Wing area of 100,000 m²: approximately 14,000 units”
Page 71: they think that inflatable kites can scale more (“square-square” by their expression) than rigid kites (“square-cube law”). I suggested using shapewave® .
Hi Pierre: They are regurgitating what the early AWE contingent was saying between 10 and 15 years ago, which includes:
- beating the square/cube laws of scaling,
- operation in the Jet Stream,
- kite-mounted solar panels,
- power-producing onboard turbines,
- use as a wifi repeater station,
- kite-reeling for power production at the ground,
- use as a heavy-lifter crane,
and - most of what shapewave currently promotes and many kitesurfers already use.
Surfboards are made from Drop-stitch and are relatively flat. In contrast shapewave® allows more curves for aerodynamic profiles.
Sometimes a detail changes the game.
Inflatable kites similar to those from Mothership Project, or also envisaged for this project:
OSU High Altitude Weather Kite (HAWK)
Okstate Inflatable Structure Kite
3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Slow Chat III