WEBVTT - How the MARS Turbine Works 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.480 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:13.960 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:18.200 Charles W. Chuck Bryant is picking his no. No, but 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:20.360 you know what, I had to be off color. I 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.800 had all these jokes about me generating wind, ready to go, 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:26.520 and then i'd like the red light came on and 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.560 I just went blank. I think it's probably good. I 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.640 think it's for the best. So can I just say, Josh, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.760 I'm I'd love to generate wind. Yes, you can't. Okay, 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:38.120 that's my that's my joke. It's a good one. Chuck. Yeah, 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.360 you want to talk about wind generation, let's do it. Well, 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.720 let's go a different direction. First. You know bats have 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.760 been taken a hit lately, right as in flying bats. Yeah, 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:51.760 I thought you meant like baseball bats. No, I've been 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.160 taking a hit. I know. I wouldn't say something like that. 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.800 Didn't take stuff, buddy. Um bats have been taking a hit. 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:03.200 There's a um. This white fungus that basically has been 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:07.200 wiping out entire bat colonies and coming close to wiping 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:10.400 out entire species around the United States. Is the fungus 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:12.440 on the bat? Yeah, it's on the bat snows muzzle. 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.800 It's really horrible. Um and it's it's kind of a 0:01:16.800 --> 0:01:21.039 big deal. If you study bats, you're alarmed right now. Right. Sure, 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.000 that's not the only thing that's probably the biggest risk 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:28.880 to the bat population in the United States. But there's 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.959 another one that UM was mysterious for a little while, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:37.640 and it was bats dying near wind turbines. Really yeah, 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.160 but the weird thing was is you could walk up 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:42.440 to a dead bat on the ground near this, near 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:47.520 a windmill, right, a wind turbine that's used for generating electricity, 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:51.160 um and the bat would be totally uninjured. There's nothing 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.560 wrong with it. It wasn't bleeding, it didn't have any 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.240 um signs of trauma. So I thought the radar might 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.680 have said, like, this is food and it's smacked into 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.040 one of the propeller budes. No, it did not actually 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.160 um that that's addressed in this article. Wind turbines kill 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:11.120 bats without impact on the Discovery channel um and and 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.120 it says that bats don't run into things. This This 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.120 expert who's quoted into it says that he's like, they're 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.560 really good at with sonar, so they don't run into 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.760 things that they didn't mean to write, which is weird 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.080 because so that means when bats come down and hit 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.359 you in the head, they meant to write. What they 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.399 found out finally that solved this mystery was that their 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:38.079 lungs were exploding because of a pressure drop. Yeah, the 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.400 pressure drop from the rotation of the blades. When they 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:44.679 got close enough to the blades, their lungs would explode. Um. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:51.720 It would take about a four kilo pascal change kilopascal. 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.399 A pascal is a measure of pressure. A kilo pascal's 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:58.720 a thousand measures of pressure um to kill a bat, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.880 it said in the article. And the wind turbines above 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:06.160 the turbot and right above it, um it generates a 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.280 five to ten kilopassical drop. So these baths are just 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.600 getting near and then boom, their lungs were exploding. And 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:13.720 then they were hitting the ground. Their little tiny lungs 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:16.640 would just pop. It's like the saddest thing I've ever heard. 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:19.919 So what do you do, Chuck? I mean, like wind, 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:23.800 wind energy is just it's wonderful. It's it's generally a 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:28.120 very green type of energy. I got some updated stats 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.120 for you. You want to hear some stats. Let's talk 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.799 about it. This is some wind energy stats, Josh. Last 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:37.960 year in two thousand nine, UM we produced worldwide a 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:40.880 hundred and fifty nine thousand, two hundred and thirteen mega 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:45.480 watts of electricity thanks to wind. It's pretty good. It's 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:48.800 enough to power Italy for a year, the whole country 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:50.520 for the whole year. But that's a drop in the 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:55.960 in the bucket for overall electricity production, right, Yeah, very 0:03:55.960 --> 0:03:59.320 small percentages is produced by wind. Um. They do predict 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.160 by the end of this year that it will crack 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.400 two hundred thousand. And they have also said that since 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:10.880 they started this whole wacky wind capturing stuff that uh 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.440 it's it doubles every three year's capacity does so we're 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.360 heading in the right direction, it sounds like. And wind 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:20.279 is a great way to get energy because you put 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.200 up the thing, the wind blows, it produces. I mean, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:25.320 it's as easy as it gets, right, It's very Dutch, 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.360 very very dutch. Um. The problem is, Chuck. As I said, 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:31.479 it was a very green technology, but there's a lot 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.400 of overlooked environmental impact. If we may jump around to 0:04:34.480 --> 0:04:37.640 Tad right, these things are enormous. I've never seen what 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.200 I've seen pictures on the TV. We're on the internets, right, 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:45.000 and rain Man, did they have did they pass a wind? Yeah? 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:46.919 Like if you could drive to Palm Springs from l A, 0:04:47.000 --> 0:04:50.240 you go by that huge like famous wind turbine farm. Chuck, 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.000 I'm glad to hear the h is back. Did I 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:55.520 say huge? Yes you did? Sorry I met huge, you 0:04:55.600 --> 0:05:00.159 didn't huge? Um, okay, yeah, but they're they're enormous. The 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:02.679 turbines apparently are about the size of a seven forty 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:07.640 seven thousands and thousands of pounds and they're catching wind 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:13.000 at about two feet up. They're enormous. Just one single turbine, right, 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:16.840 there are a lot of bat and bird deaths. And 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.919 to get these things in there, um, you have to 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.160 basically construct new roads. In a lot of cases, you're 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:29.400 promoting soil erosion, uh and habitat fragmentation. So not quite 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:34.120 as green as people would like to believe. Yeah right, yeah, 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:36.200 Josh that it can be. It can have a big 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.640 impact on the environment in setting it all up, and 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:40.400 you kind of don't think about that when you're like, oh, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.160 I could get free wind energy or not free. Obviously 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.440 it's pretty expensive, but it's it's it's a gift from nature, 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:51.440 isn't it there? You go? Yeah? Um, so what what 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.240 do you do though, chuck? Because everybody wants this more 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.920 than say, fossil fuels, Well, everybody outside of the oil 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:01.239 industry wants this more than aussil fuels. And by oil, 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.359 of course I mean coal as well and natural gas, 0:06:04.440 --> 0:06:09.560 but I mean in the greener quarters of the globe. Um, 0:06:09.800 --> 0:06:12.520 wind energy is a winner, right, So how do you 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:17.960 overcome these problems, these obstacles to make you know, a 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.919 wind energy truly green? I'm glad you asked, Josh. Potentially, 0:06:21.960 --> 0:06:28.160 my friend, we may see little tiny blimp like balloons 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:33.320 hovering in the air about a thousand feet harnessing wind 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.560 much higher. And as I said, it's floating in the air, 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.120 so it doesn't have some huge foundation that needs to 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:44.919 be built and erode the ground. It's just tethered to 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.480 the ground by a tether, a tether that serves as 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.560 an electrical cable. Right. Yeah, So that's that's the Mars 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.159 turbine M A R S. It does not have anything 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.320 to do with the planet, the red planet. It stands 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:01.600 for the is it major? I did not know how 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:03.040 to pronounce it. I didn't want to touch that one 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:05.560 for the same. M A G E n N is 0:07:05.560 --> 0:07:08.120 the name of the company, the Major Air Rotor System 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.960 m A R S. So it's an acronym, right, and 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:15.440 basically it's a well the CEO of we're gonna go 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.880 with majorin Okay, I'm down with that. Okay. Um. He 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.120 likened them to floating white sausages with paddle boat wheels, right, 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:26.320 So that what he said. That's what it says. It's 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:29.960 like a floating white sausage. Yeah, okay, it's just a 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:33.120 little blimp with some turbines on it. It looks like 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.920 a blimp with paddle wheels on it, right, Yeah, it's 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.880 sort of like I'll call a football before I called 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.400 white sausage. I don't know where this guy's head is, 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.680 but he's hungry, I guess. So he's ready for some 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.800 broad worst and you're ready for football season, Yes I am, 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:51.000 which also includes brought worst. So yours is all encompassingly 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:55.720 it is chuck. Yes, uh you you said that this. 0:07:56.000 --> 0:07:59.600 So we've got a floating white football sausage with turbines. 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:03.400 It's connected to a tether at each end, right, and 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:06.320 the wind hits it and it spins the whole thing spins. 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:09.240 It's not like a it is like a pin wheel. 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.000 The whole thing, The whole thing rotates as if a 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.320 football were spiraling, right like. So the turbine is connected 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:18.040 to the blimp, So the whole blimp is spinning. Turbine, 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.800 blimp and all right. And then at the ends there's 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.320 electrical generators. So the tethers, like I said, actually are 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:30.120 double as electrical cables. It's not just a rope, right um. 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.800 And so the blimp is spinning, it's generating electricity. It's 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.800 sending the electricity down the tethers to a transformer which 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:39.760 serves a power station which is connected to the grid, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:42.720 or stores and batteries. There's other things you can do 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.920 with it. And it's really that simple. It runs on 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:50.440 the the It runs an electromagnetic induction, right which I 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.120 looked this up a little bit. Let's hear it. Remember 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:55.839 Michael Faraday, he was on a genius list, could I forget? 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.000 So Michael Faraday one came up with this heat I guess, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.959 was just sitting around his house, drunk on scotch um, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:08.360 screwing with wire coils and magnets, and he discovered that 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:11.960 you could generate an electrical current. By passing a magnet 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:15.720 through a series of wire coals, you're actually changing what 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:19.840 should be ecstatic electrical field. Right. That was a very 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:23.320 big discovery, it was. And he also found that the 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.760 faster you passed the magnet through, the faster you move 0:09:25.840 --> 0:09:28.640 the magnet, the higher the current or the higher the voltage, 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:33.360 stronger the current. Right. So what the the Mars turbine 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:37.600 is doing is the faster it turns, the quicker it 0:09:37.679 --> 0:09:41.880 moves this the magnets through their wire coils, the stronger 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:44.959 the electrical current, right, which is one reason why they 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.000 float so high up, because the air speeds at a 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:53.079 thousand feet are significantly stronger than they are at uh, 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:56.320 you know two hundred feet where the ground based wind 0:09:56.320 --> 0:10:00.720 turbine is located, right. Yeah, every time you double your elevation, 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.280 there's a twelve increase in wind speed, and every doubling 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.880 of wind speed there's an eight times eight fold increase 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.280 in wind power. So a two ft turbine and touched 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:14.240 the ground is just not nearly as effective as it 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.360 one that's floating a thousand feet up in the air 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.040 with And the reason obviously is because there's no trees 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:22.760 or buildings. There's no wind resistance, so it's just free flowing. 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.079 But yeah, and it's UM. It's pretty constant up there 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.840 as well. It's it's kind of windy up high, Yeah, 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.680 which helps because inconsistent wind is one of the problems 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.760 with wind generation obviously, but not only that. The Mars 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.440 turbine UM. Also we should say here that we're getting 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.400 no UM money whatsoever for this. We're just fans UM. 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.520 But the Mars turbine is is sensitive enough to be 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:50.200 able to produce usable electrical UM voltage with wind speeds 0:10:50.200 --> 0:10:53.000 of as low as seven miles an hour. But it's 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.240 it can also UM withstand really strong winds that you know, 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.360 land based turbines are designed to shut down in so 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:03.600 I think a LAMB based turbines designed to shut down 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:09.320 at about forty and the Mars turbine can continue to 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:13.400 produce electricity in sixty three winds, I think yeah. And 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:16.480 anything above that, anything above sixty three to sixty five 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:19.920 they have UM just like blimps do. They have controls 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:26.760 on it, like overspeed controls and uh bait emergency deflate, 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:28.560 so if it gets they can do two things. If 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:31.480 it starts spinning way too fast they can has has 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.000 a system that kicks in that reels it in automatically 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:36.520 and like lowers it. And the wind might not be 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.079 as you know, as great at like three feet, so 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.240 they can keep running it. If it's really out of control, 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.840 they'll just reel it in all together. The system will 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.360 um or if there's some really big emergency like the 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.760 tether brakes and all of a sudden it's flying, you know, 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:53.520 over your neighbor's farm, it will automatically deflate, which is 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:56.960 what blimps have this emergency system, right, And and that's 0:11:57.000 --> 0:11:59.920 one of the things that we uh should probably mention 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.720 is it's designed. Uh it floats because it's filled with helium, 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.160 right or lighter some lighter than air gas, but I 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.320 believe they use helium. They use helium, and the blimp 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:14.280 itself is made out of um, as the writer Jennifer 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.000 Horton put it, the same material used in bulletproof vest. 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.440 I was wondering, is that kevlar? Is that chicken feathers 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.440 or spider silk harvested from goats? I actually know the answer. 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.720 What is? I checked into this because it was slightly vague. Um. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:34.160 The outer fabric is dacron, woven dacron, and that is 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:38.199 what's used for boat sails. The actual fins that catch 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:42.439 the wind to spend the football is vectoran and that 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:45.360 is what is used in bulletproof vest these days, apparently 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.880 some of them, all right. And then the coating it's 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.240 also aligned with something called ted lar, and that's the 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.960 same kind of plastic coating you find on like house sighting. 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:01.880 So that's what protects it from UV damage, abrasion, stuff 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.040 like that. And your new nickname is Chuck Tran. Chuck 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.240 Trot and check your hands, no, Chuck Tran. And then 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.160 the inner portion of it is have you ever seen 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:13.880 those little uh milar balloons. Yeah, it's a little funny 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.839 aluminum looking balloons. It's not aluminium, it's milar. And that's 0:13:17.880 --> 0:13:19.760 what this thing is lined with because that holds in 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.080 your helium really well. They found it and just to 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.640 keep it even greener. If you look closely inside the 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:32.400 Mars turbine, you'll see little um sentiments like get well soon, 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:37.440 or your one year cuter. It's a boy I did. 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:39.240 That was one of my big questions when I was reading, 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.679 and this was wait a minute, what about the helium? 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.480 Because I've had those milar balloons and they don't hold 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.160 it forever. No, they don't see weeks later. It's sadly 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.560 hovering it like your kneecaps. The helium um. I think 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:59.240 helium being held in uh milar space is greatly increased 0:13:59.400 --> 0:14:02.959 in cold temperatures. It's cold at a thousand feet okay, 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.640 that helps much colder um and the pressure there's less 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.880 air pressure at a thousand feet as well, right, so 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.560 there's less um. Well, there's less pressure trying to force 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:16.160 it out. Good point, I think. But I did find 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.240 out how much leaks because it does leak, well, yeah, 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:21.920 I would think it would have the point five per month. 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.440 So if you buy one of these things, and we 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.760 should point out that theoretically these are gonna be available 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:32.160 to consumers like early, that's what they're looking at right now, 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.760 and you it does not. The price of the thing 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:39.680 does not come with a helium. Just like when you 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:41.680 buy a new car, they don't necessarily have it full 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.280 of gas for you. You have to provide your own gas. 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:48.600 And the hundred kilowatt version requires two hundred thousand cubic 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.800 feet of helium, which is about wow. To fill it 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.640 up with helium. That's how they get you that, Yeah, exactly, 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.360 that's where they get you. But um, if it leaks 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:00.880 point five or month, that means they say on the website, 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:02.720 like every four or six months, just top her off 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.440 with helium for five grand and you'll be fine. Right, 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:08.400 But these things are built to last. The company I 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.080 think estimates it said. Um that they can float there, 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.080 I guess without being patched is what they meant for 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.200 maybe fifteen years without a need for magtenance because of 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:22.560 all the tough stuff it's made of, um and chuck. 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.400 If you happen to wonder, this thing is spinning in 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:30.120 the air right on an axis, how does the Magnus 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.200 effect factor in? Does it factor in at all? The 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.520 answer to that one, buddy, is yes. Are you talking 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.960 about the Magnus von Magnus effect or just the Magnus 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.880 effect the Magnus effect, Because the Magnus von Magnus effect 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:44.840 is when you are able to lift a beer keg 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:48.560 made of concrete in your overalls and carry it a 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.240 hundred feet. Well, yeah, everybody knows that. Much lesser known 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.200 is the regular old Magnus effect, right, and you see 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:00.680 it in every day. It's the spin on a curveball. Yeah. Basically, 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:05.880 as a UM, a spherical, round ish object travels through 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:09.560 the air as it's spinning on an axis UM, it 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.160 creates an actual area of high pressure beneath it that 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:18.080 creates lift, right, that stabilizes it right, so well, it 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.960 stabilizes that if the thing's tethered, right, which is how 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.800 the UM. So that combined with the fact that it's 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.440 filled with helium, which is lighter than air, UM allows 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.200 this thing to stay vertical pretty much vertical all the time. Yeah, 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.880 they said on the website that UM, but the helium 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:37.600 and the magnets effects will not allow it to lean 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.880 more than forty five degrees from vertical at any point. Wow, 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.800 even if it's like when swirling in all different directions, 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:45.840 it still stays pretty stable. Owner if there's a money 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.960 back guarantee on that, there's a lot of money, but 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:50.480 they don't pay you back for the helium. That's where 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:53.600 they don't, you know. Yeah, um and actually chuck that. 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.400 There's this thing called the Magnus airship that operates on 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.520 the magnets effect principle that was invented in the seventies 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.600 that gave rise to the Mars turbine, right, yeah, Freddy 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.000 Ferguson who was the founder of this company, Old Fred Ferguson. 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:13.159 He yeah, he invented the Magnus airship, patented it in 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:17.280 the nineteen eighties, and then that later became he was like, hey, 0:17:17.359 --> 0:17:19.359 I can actually use this thing to generate wind. I 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.800 bet it's pretty awesome. It's very awesome. Every once in 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.080 a while you were run across like a green idea 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:28.640 that's like, wow, this could actually work really well. Oh yeah. 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:31.240 The bad news is it's going to be really pricey 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:37.119 at first at first, like all wind power. This price 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.639 is already going down, right, right. So the initial the 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.359 initial cost when this article was written, Um, the initial 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:48.160 expected cost is about five to ten dollars per what right, Yes, 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.400 and it's actually less now as of right now. Yeah, 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:54.840 look today it's four fifty to seven dollars. So it's 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:58.160 already dropped. And this was upfront cost. Yeah, this is 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.000 like two years old. It's already gone down much so 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.480 the take away the ten it's not five to ten anymore, 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:05.560 it's five or less. It's say four four dollars and 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.359 seventy cents a lot. That's way more than what you 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:12.480 pay for electricity as it is now. Um, but you 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.879 know you don't generally pay unless you're a Georgia Power 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:19.320 customer upfront costs to create electricity. You're paying for the 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:24.000 electricity generated, right, Um, this is you're paying for the turbine. 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:26.920 Like you buy this turbine and hey, here's your turbine. 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:31.159 Go create your own power. Right So um, again, the 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.240 price probably will come down dramatically, but once you've got 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:37.639 the thing up and running, the operating cost is about 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.960 fifteen cents to kill a watt hour? Is that which 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:44.960 is still more than what we pay now, but it's 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:47.920 half of what wind energy used to cost it when 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:50.280 it first really started to come along. Saying the rain 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.400 Man era, it was thirty cents to kill a watt hour. 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:58.000 So as wind power, as electricity generated by wind becomes 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.640 more ubiquitous, that the price for it's going to drop 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.440 across the board no matter how it's generated. And it's 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.399 for God's sakes, it's a green technology. It's always a 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:11.479 little expensive at first, but typically the people that outfit 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.000 their houses with solar panels, it cost a little dough 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:16.840 to do that. Typically there are people that want to 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.000 do a little uh, favor to the environment and they 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.600 realize over time they're going to make their money back. Probably, 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.359 but not many people are going out and outfitting their 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:28.239 house with thirty dollars with the solar panels because you know, 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:30.720 they want to save a dime. You know. Well, yeah, 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:34.240 that's true, but it would be helpful if there were 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.159 I don't know, rebates for buying something like this, like 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:43.040 government subsidies. I think they all expired. I really yeah, 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:44.680 we'll have to look into that, and I bet there's 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.960 still some out there. I have another question I don't 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.359 know if you know the answer to does the do 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:53.840 these things show up on radar airplanes? Yeah? They do. 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:57.159 I'm glad you asked that. You really didn't know. I 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.440 really didn't. Well, the Air Force and the government uses 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.040 uh tethered balloons up to like thousands of feet up 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:07.439 in the air, and so they're they're they're cleared with 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:09.399 the f a A. And in order to get one 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:11.960 of these things, you have to get a special permit 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:13.959 from the f a A. And you have to have 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:17.600 a blinking tether. It's a system that it blinks once 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:23.000 per second. That's an extra fifty dollars blinking blinking tether. So, um, 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.040 there's some other rules to that f a A has 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.560 already put forth uh here too. Um, you cannot have 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.720 one within five miles of an airport at all or 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:36.119 within any flight path in North America, do you know? 0:20:36.200 --> 0:20:39.560 I mean flight pass are? I imagine there's quite quite 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:41.680 a few that you have to avoid. There's at least 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:45.359 seventeen or eighteen seventeen or eighteen flight pass and um, 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:47.080 you have to have the lighting system, like I said, 0:20:47.119 --> 0:20:50.359 and then you can't have it, Like you can't have it. 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:52.520 You got to live out in the open. You're you're 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:53.879 not gonna be able to put one of these up 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.880 in your neighborhood in suburban Atlanta. Well, originally the thing 0:20:57.920 --> 0:21:01.320 was designed to be used in very remote places that 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.760 are off the grid, like if you're on an Antarctic 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:09.880 expedition or an Arctic expedition, whichever one. It could also 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:12.560 be used in a disaster situation. That's the one I love. 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:14.679 That's pretty cool. It makes a lot of sense. So 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:19.520 if you if you um have the Mars turbine and 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:24.760 that um, remember that that water manufacturing device like sucks 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.120 it out of the ambient air. You're set. You're done. Yeah, 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.000 build a bomb shelter and you're you're all set for life. 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:33.479 Um I should also point out before we leave, they 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.760 do um envision one day, probably five to ten years 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:39.480 from now, Josh, where there is a four kilowatt backpack 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:43.200 model that you can actually carry with you, dude, take 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.560 it camping out in Yosemite and the TV fly that 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.720 sucker up. Yeah, take your TV and your your computer 0:21:49.840 --> 0:21:52.240 and you can online gamble out there in the woods 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:54.840 just like everyone else, just like home. Pretty cool. Yeah, 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:57.679 So that's the Mars turbine. Um I saw on the 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:00.800 site that they're taking orders for them. Yeah, and you 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.040 can also if you fit requirements, you can be a 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:07.119 test um location for these things. There's a lot of 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.240 requirements and imagine a lot of people that live on 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:12.480 farms in North Dakota by like, hey, I'll test it 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:14.640 out of my house, right, you come out and set 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.000 it up. I'll bet being photogenic has is one of 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.480 the requirements. And no bare midri of shirts. Yeah, nothing 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:23.919 see through. So again, if you want to see some 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:27.520 cool illustrations of the Mars turbine, you can go to 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.480 how stuff works dot com. Type m A R S 0:22:31.840 --> 0:22:33.959 and the search bar and I'll bet it brings up 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:38.240 a lot more than just this article. Yeah yeah, um chuck, Yes, 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:43.000 that means it's time now for a listener mail. Correct. Yeah, 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:45.200 I got a couple of short ones today. We're going 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:49.399 right into it. You want to plug nah, okay, south 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:53.199