WEBVTT - Flying Without Fuel 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.360 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from Hey 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:15.000 There we one, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:19.320 Strickland and our co host Lauren is out today, but 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.040 another co host of mine on the show Coward Thinking, 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.560 Joe McCormick, has kindly agreed to step in. Um, he 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.120 doesn't know what he's in for. Hi, everybody, Yeah, I 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:30.360 was just sitting at my little I was going to 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:33.400 say cubicle, but it's a cubicle with only one side. 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.480 It's a it's a one iCal. We all have the 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:42.040 same and uh and this this strange bald person sneaks 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.040 up to me and says, well, you jump on a podcast. 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.800 They don't know, They don't get much stranger. Yes, I jumped, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.120 I jumped on. We have not outlined this at all. 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:55.600 This is an impromptu podcast that Joe has kindly agreed 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:59.200 to participate in, but we wanted to have a chance 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.320 to chat about something that I talked about in a 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:03.760 recent episode of Forward Thinking. So if you guys haven't 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:07.119 checked out Forward Thinking, please do. I think I think 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.040 a lot of tech stuff fans would really enjoy that series. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:13.280 Joe is the head writer on Forward Thinking and has 0:01:13.319 --> 0:01:16.440 done amazing work I have not written this episode. However, 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:19.960 this episode was I thought really cool, and it's about 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.360 a solar powered aircraft. Yeah, which when you think about it, 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:26.959 that on its face sounds pretty crazy, especially if you 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.160 have taken time to really look into solar power and 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.800 not just its advantages but it's limitations, right right, Well, 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.920 this is obviously not the only solar powered aircraft that's 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.320 ever been created, right, it's it's probably the coolest one 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.199 ever created yet. And it is amazing that you can 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:47.560 take a huge, heavy thing off the ground with the 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.560 power of solar energy alone. That's just I mean, this 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:55.040 is what powers your calculator, right, not not an airplane. Yeah. Like, 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:58.320 for example, I have a a battery pack in my 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.280 in my backpack solar panel that it faces outward, and 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.760 in theory, you can use solar energy to recharge the 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:08.320 battery pack, which then you can use to recharge something 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:11.880 like a smartphone. Right, that's the basic premise of this backpack. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:14.639 Here's the thing. If I want to recharge that battery 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.640 using solar power, I have to have it in the 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:22.480 sun for twelve consecutive hours. One doesn't have to be consecutive, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.120 but twelve hours to get a full charge, whereas if 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:27.440 I were to plug it into the wall, it's an 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.880 hour and a half maybe two hours total to charge 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:31.960 it all the way up, maybe even less than that. 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:34.640 So it just shows that that solar power, you know, 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:37.480 getting a lot of energy from it is a challenge. Now, 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.960 obviously the solar panel that's in my backpack is not 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.920 what you would consider bleeding edge. No, it's probably not 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:47.400 the best that our current science has to offer. It's 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.120 probably not even on the top near the top line 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.160 for consumer tech right now, because what's available on the 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:58.320 consumer side is a big drop down from the cutting 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:00.680 edge best of the best. So if you are getting 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:03.799 a solar panel that has been designed to be as 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.200 efficient as possible, we're talking top of the line. This 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.200 is the stuff that NASA is going to use, right, 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:15.040 you're gonna top out somewhere around forty to efficiency. And 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:17.760 what you're talking about there is how much of the 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:21.239 energy from the sun you're converting, right, So you're you're 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:24.079 not even starting necessarily with a very high number. It's 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.840 just how much of that solar energy is arriving at 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.720 the panels, which is obviously going to be less than 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.720 say the energy density of gasoline or something like that. 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.200 Far less, far less. Yeah, so you're getting you're getting 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.000 this h You're you're losing six the energy that hits 0:03:39.040 --> 0:03:42.560 the panel raf the bat then that ends up being 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:47.320 converted into electricity. And it's not that much per solar panel, 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.680 Like an individual solar panel doesn't put out that much electricity. 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.320 Even if it's really efficient, it's not putting out that much. 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:58.160 That's why whenever you talk about really using solar panels effectively, 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.440 you're talking about lots and lots of lots of solar panels, right, 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:05.680 they have individual solar cells in them, and there might 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:10.160 be thousands of the solar cells in one solar panel farm. Yeah, 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:15.000 and if you're designing an airplane that's powered by solar panels, 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.200 one of the big questions I would wonder is where 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.160 are you going to put them? I Mean, when I 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.719 heard about this thing before I saw an image of it, 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.799 what I pictured in my mind was like a football 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.520 field sized flat surface with just the tiny little, you know, 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.280 person strapped to the bottom of it. And that's not 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:35.880 that far off in a way that probably wouldn't fly, 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.440 but yeah, definitely sign it like a plane. Yeah, you've 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:42.000 gotta have a lot, a lot of surface area, right, 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:43.680 You have to have a lot of surface area for 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:46.680 multiple reasons. So the big reasons why you need a 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.520 lot of surface area, which in planes means a wide wingspan, 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.479 because obviously if you made the fuselage or the body 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:56.200 of the plane the biggest part, then you have to 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:58.640 figure out how do you get something that bulky and 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.440 heavy into the air and have it have the vehicle 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.000 maintain enough thrust to keep it in the air, because 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.039 I mean thrust is a really important part of this too. 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.800 We we just established that solar panels aren't generating that 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.440 much electricity, so they can't uh push a super powerful 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.360 electric motor. And the electric motor is what's going to 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.760 be turning the propellers that are going to provide the 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.359 thrust necessary to get this plane in the air. So 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.320 you have to keep weight in mind, you can't make 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.120 it too heavy, and you still need all that surface area. 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.400 So what do you do? Well, what the folks over 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.920 at solar Impulse, Oh, yeah, we should have said that's 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.680 the one we're talking about, the solar impulse. Solar impulse 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.240 too is specifically what we're talking about that there already 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.760 has been a Solar Impulse one, which was kind of 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:44.040 a proof of concept vehicle that they built in order 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:48.080 to test out the different engineering approaches they were going 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:51.359 to take, because their goal is to have this circle, 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.640 this this solar Impulse to go all the way around 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.039 the Earth. I believe the demo of the Solar Impulse 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.640 one was a transcontinental flight. Yeah, it was from the 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.719 West coast to the United States to the East coast, 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.880 and they had several legs of the journey. They even had, 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:10.080 uh set a record for the longest number the most 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:15.120 number of flight hours consecutively for a manned solar powered aircraft. 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.600 So if you're talking about unmanned aircraft, you end up 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:22.279 having really long times because you don't have a human 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.480 that you have don Yeah, you don't need to worry 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.400 about a person saying goodbye to their family for two 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:31.440 weeks or whatever. Uh So for the manned record, we're 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.719 talking uh twenty six hours, ten minutes and nineteen seconds, 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.520 so more than a full day. And if you're thinking 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:41.000 solar power and you're thinking, how the heck were they 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:43.280 able to fly when there was no son, we'll get 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.760 to that, uh but yeah, So, so the records already 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.880 been set. These were all proof of concepts that they 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.000 were saying, well, we need to figure out what things 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.040 are required for this dream of flying a solar powered 0:06:56.080 --> 0:06:58.400 aircraft all the way around the world. What's required for 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.400 that to actually become a reality. So this wing span 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:05.479 was the first thing, and the Solar Impulse two S wingspan. 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:10.400 It's pretty impressive. We're talking about seventy two meters, so 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:13.480 that's that's more than two and forty ft. We're talking 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.360 about the uh, the width that's greater than say a 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:23.679 Bowing seven. Okay, but unlike a Bowing See, it doesn't 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.320 have a huge fuselage full of passengers and cargo. This 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:31.320 has a tiny, tiny, little compartment. Yeah, it's essentially a 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.320 little The body of the plane is very small. It 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.120 will allow the two the pilot and copilot to sit 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.600 side by side, just as in a traditional aircraft. It's 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.360 not you know, front and back like the old World 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.520 War One and World War Two aircraft work all turret. Yeah, no, 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.240 I'm not gonna have to worry about that. Um. But yeah, 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:54.360 it's it's relatively small, and it's made out of carbon fiber. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.800 So carbon fiber has a couple of advantages, right, It's 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.920 pretty strong, and it's really light compared to other materials. 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:04.480 So you want to use something that's going to be 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:09.160 resilient so I can withstand the rigors of air travel, 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:13.600 and yeah, it can't be too heavy, So carbon fibers 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:17.560 what they went with, and in fact, the entire plane 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:22.239 ends up being something like I think it's twenty six hundred, no, sorry, 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:27.600 twenty that's around five thousand seventy pounds. That means that 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.960 there are cars on the market that are heavier than 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.280 this airplane. Is this airplane that has a wingspan wider 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:38.079 than a Bowing seven. That's pretty crazy, It's pretty crazy, 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:40.839 you know. I would imagine one reason that they can 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.880 use those kind of fibers is because this airplane goes 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.680 a lot slower than your standard passenger airplane, which obviously 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.240 the faster you go, the more turbulence and friction you're 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.880 gonna have to withstand, right, And uh yeah, So so 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.760 with a Boeing example, for example, like your average commuter 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.000 airline type of thing, you're talking about speeds in the 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.720 five mile per hour range. With solar impulse too, you're 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.440 not gonna go quite that fast. The top speed is 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:15.400 something like eight miles per hour eighty eight miles per hour. Fortunately, 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.479 it does not require one point twenty one jigga watts 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:20.600 for it to fly, or else it would go back. 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.680 How many gigawatts does it require? Not many at all, really, 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.600 because again, all right, do you know how many solar 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:33.360 panels are actually on this seventeen thousand across that seven 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:35.240 guess I don't know what that means because I don't 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.440 know how big they are. They're not. It's not that 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:39.680 they're that big. Well, I mean, think of a seventy 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:44.280 two wide wingspan. Um, you know, you're that's pretty huge. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.319 It's not that the panels themselves or the solar cells. 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:49.760 I guess I should say it's not that the solar 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.520 cells are that big, because really, solar cells is more 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.400 accurate than panels. Panels are like a collection of cells. 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:58.240 But they're not that big. But the fact that there 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.280 are seventeen thousand of them is pretty impressive. And they're 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.360 only driving four electric motors. And like I said, those 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:06.080 electric motors turn electric propellers. The propellers are shaped in 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.360 such a way to help provide the thrust needed so 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.720 that you maintain the speed to uh to stay in 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:14.520 the air. Those wide wings also are able to provide 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.160 a lot of lift and stability and flight, although it 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.080 is kind of tricky. You can't take off in windy 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.440 conditions with this thing. You would imagine not because with 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:26.600 such a wide wingspan, a little bit of wind could 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:29.760 easily get it to start tilting any which way. Yeah. 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:32.480 Yet another thing I'd also imagine is that the wider 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:36.560 wing span allows it to stay aloft at lower speeds. Yeah. Yeah, 0:10:36.600 --> 0:10:38.439 that's another thing. And it's also not going to go 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.800 to the same sort of altitude that you would see 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:44.600 with like a commuter jet or something that's not gonna 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.600 go up to thirty feet. Um. So, yeah, we've got this. 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:54.800 We've got this incredible aircraft that's light, it's a it's 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:59.319 able to get through the air without falling apart. Despite 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.959 the fact that so light, it's able to drive these 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:04.520 electric motors. So how can it fly at night? Well 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:08.040 that's an excellent question that will answer in just a moment, 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.200 But let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. Okay, 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:15.120 so we're doing around the world flight. It's at eighty 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:18.360 eight miles per hour. That means at top speed eight 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:20.720 eight miles per that's not average speed. That's top speed. 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.480 That would mean there's going to be some stretches of 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.080 this flight where the airplane is gonna have to stay 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:27.760 in the air a really long time because there's no 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.880 convenient way to land it at night. When you're over 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.719 say the Ocean, right, they're gonna be times where the 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.199 you know, those oceans are so wide, there's no way 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.839 the plane can make a trip across say the Atlantic, 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.600 in a single day. Not at eighty eight miles per hour. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.840 It's gonna take multiple days and nights of flying for 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:48.600 it to get from one point to another where it 0:11:48.600 --> 0:11:51.320 can safely land. Because they do plan on taking this 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:53.559 trip through several legs where the plane will be able 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.040 to land. Maintenance screws can come out and and do 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.760 some repairs if necessary, that kind of thing. It's not 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:01.280 like it's going to do a a full flight around 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.360 the Earth without ever touching down. They will be touching 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.080 down along the way and then taking back off and 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.679 another leg of the journey. But still, when you're over 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:11.800 the ocean, you don't have that luxury, so you've got 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:13.959 to be able to fly at night. So that's when 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.040 they switched to monkey on a stationary bicycle. Power. You know, 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:22.720 I recommended that. I thought it's time has come. I mean, 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.920 it's an unproven technology, I'll grant you, but I really 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.720 think we have not tapped the potential of monkey bicycles. No. 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:32.240 I think this is they've got to be using some 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.280 some pretty good batteries and that has to be a 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.760 very important part of the design, right, because batteries are heavy. 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.520 This airplane needs to be light. Yeah, they used, uh, 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:46.720 they created lithium batteries. They actually had the engineers had 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.880 to look at a way to make the batteries incredibly efficient, 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.440 and uh, they had to be able to charge quickly 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.240 because if you aren't getting a full charge throughout the day, 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.400 then while you're also dry having those propellers, then that 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.839 could become a problem at night, right, if you want 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.559 to remain aloft, that could be a serious problem. So 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.200 they experiment with different electrolytes um, which, of course, as 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:13.480 we know from Idiocracy, is the stuff that plants crave. 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:17.520 But no, they experiment with a lot of different chemical 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.199 compositions to try and make the most efficient batteries. So 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.000 they went with lithium batteries. They are kind of think 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:28.520 of it like a long, thin almost like a film 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:33.800 as opposed to a big battery pack. So it it's 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.640 pretty remarkable the design, and they weigh the batteries weigh 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.120 six D thirty three k or about two thousand seventy 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:45.200 seven pounds, which means that you know, the they weigh 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.360 up little bit more than a quarter of the actual 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:54.600 plane itself the batteries alone. So obviously batteries are heavy. 0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:57.480 They're important because you have to have that energy to 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.440 tap into at night, Otherwise, once the sun starts to 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:04.120 go down or it gets too cloudy, your plane would plummet. 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:06.600 And this isn't just a problem for planes, I mean, 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.160 it's especially a problem in planes, right, This is a 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.040 problem for any electric vehicle, right, is is how to 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:15.920 deal with this massive battery that's required to operate motors 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.080 with this kind of power exactly. And it's something that 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:21.160 we've seen not even not just in an electric vehicles, 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.960 but electronics in general. It's one of those constant questions 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.360 that pop up about how you know, the processing power 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:32.240 has increased steadily over the years. We've got the whole 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:36.000 observation of Moore's law where we're seeing it practically double 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.840 every two years or so, depending upon your interpretation of 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.680 the observation. Uh, well, then why haven't batteries kept pace 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:45.640 with that? You know, we're I'm seeing my my mobile 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.120 devices getting more powerful, but the battery is draining faster, 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:50.320 so it's not as useful to me as long. And 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:52.280 part of that is just because batteries aren't on that 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:54.880 accelerated path. I mean, there's only so much we can 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.480 do with chemistry. To be fair, they have come a 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.480 long way. This is also a topic we talked about 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:01.640 not too long to go on forward thinking is how 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.680 far batteries have come. And it is kind of amazing 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.600 what we've achieved today. I mean, your standard lithium ion 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:12.360 battery today is kind of a wonder work. It really is. Yeah. 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:15.160 The fact that you're able to recharge it so that 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.120 the chemical, the electrochemical reaction that's going on within the 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.320 battery gives off electrons. I mean that's the whole point 0:15:22.360 --> 0:15:25.360 of a battery, Otherwise it would be useless. Uh. And 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.720 in a in an alkaline battery, this is an irreversible 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.680 uh reaction, So the electrochemical reaction happens, electrons are given off. 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:37.560 As a result, you can use those electrons to do work. Thus, electricity. 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.840 But once it's drained, once that chemical reaction has gone 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:44.000 to a certain point, you're not generating enough electrons for 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.040 it to be useful anymore. You have a dead battery. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.680 Whereas with these lithium rechargeable batteries. There are non rechargeable 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.880 types too, but with rechargeable batteries you can reverse that 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.480 reaction by essentially forcing electrons back backward through that pathway. 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:59.920 It's basically doing the whole thing backward. You're putting war 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.120 work into the battery the same way you took work 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.680 out of it earlier. Yeah, So the fact that we've 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:08.800 managed to do that and increase the efficiency even a 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.640 little bit is the reason why something like the solar 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.960 impulse too is is possible. And again we're not going 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.040 to see this actually fly around the world until two 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.520 thousand fifteen, but they've already proven that it works with 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.320 that first proof of concept vehicle that was able to 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:25.440 stay up in the air for twenty six hours. The 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.360 fact that it was able to charge the batteries, fly 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.600 all the way through the night and continue, um, you 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:34.800 know they're fully certified to fly at night. It shows 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:36.760 that there's been a lot of work done here. So 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.840 we've got, uh, the energy side covered the fact that 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.240 it's going to be using solar power to drive the 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.280 electric motors and day switched to battery at night. It's 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:51.160 going to be able to to fly really for as 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:54.320 long as the pilot and co pid can stand. That 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:56.960 was my question. Yeah, what's this going to be like 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:02.080 for the pilot incopilot? Um? Okay, have you ever, Joe, 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:05.639 have you ever traveled first class? Oh? No, okay, so 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:09.160 I've traveled first class. Uh, not to brag, but it's 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.000 pret sweet. And once you traveled first class, how is 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.720 the champagne and cheese selection. We didn't have champagne. We 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.960 had real pain, thank you, none of this champagne you 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.200 guys talked about. Um No, But but I mean it's 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:26.080 anyone who's traveled first or business class and then goes 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:31.000 back to travel coach. The belly aching is unbearable, right, 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:34.320 it's just this idea. Oh no, yeah, you can't go back, 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.639 by the way. I haven't traveled first or business in years, 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.399 and and frankly, I'm still amazed that planes work, so 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.479 I'm happy either way. But but there was a period 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.399 shortly after that time where I was able to travel 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:49.840 first or business, where I was one of those unbearable 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:53.000 people for that particular reason. I'm unbearable for many other 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:55.920 reasons now, but for that particular reason where I can't 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:00.840 believe this little wonderful complaining. I know. Flying coach, though, 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:04.800 would seem like an amazing luxury compared to what the 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:06.679 pilot and co pilot are going to have to be 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:09.920 able to endure to make this round the world flight 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.199 a possibility, because one of the things they're gonna have to, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.399 like I said, to stay in the air for some 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.480 of the estimates are as long as five days and nights, 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:23.280 or perhaps even longer for just one leg of this journey. 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.919 So for five days and nights, you are in a 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:30.560 chair in a plane and you cannot go anywhere because 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:34.639 there's no space. Every single ounce matters on that plane, 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.760 every single inch counts, so there's no space in the 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.960 back for one person to go and and collapse while 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.600 the other one flies the plane. Instead, their chairs are 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:47.320 going to be designed in such a way where they 0:18:47.320 --> 0:18:49.880 can lay back into a cot form and you can 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.800 the plane is going to have an autopilot, so they 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:57.320 can sit there there heading and course and both catch 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.040 them Z S while they need to, and then a 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.200 cup and everything should be fine. Um, somehow I don't 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.840 suspect that will happen. Well, sounds freaky. I think it's 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:09.880 probably more likely that they're going to do their best 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:12.000 to take shifts. But the nice thing is that they 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:14.439 can sit on autopilot and catch some rest if they 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.720 need to. But alright, so we've got we've got laying 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.080 down to rest, and we've got sitting up to operate. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:23.520 But there's still one important human activity besides the whole 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:25.639 eating and drinking thing. They'll obviously have some food and 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.280 water up there on the plane as well. There's one 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.879 other important activity that we can't avoid. Yeah, I was 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.520 about to ask have the engineers factored into the plane's 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.560 course the fact that it might be losing a bit 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.600 of mass as it travels. So what we're alluding to 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:46.560 is where do you poop? I mean, you know, it's 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.080 one of the most popular questions on how stuff works, 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:54.800 as main site is all about space toilets um. In 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.760 this case, those fancy chairs I was talking about they 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:01.000 double up as as both chairs cots. Well really they 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.879 do triple duty because they're also lavatories. I had to 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.280 do it Joe. Joe is rolling his eyes. So everybody, 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:12.000 we've already achieved some horrible pun hat trick. Everybody who 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.720 misses Lauren's eye rolling, just know that her spirit is 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.359 living in Joe right now, even though Lauren herself is 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:22.600 not in thet Yeah so um, but no, it's it's true. 0:20:22.680 --> 0:20:26.199 The the actual chairs are going to do this this 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:28.920 triple job of being the place where you sit, the 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:30.560 place where you sleep, in the place where you have 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.760 to go to the bathroom because they couldn't incorporate a 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.840 separate lavatory because again, every single bit of weight counts. 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:42.360 It seems like there would be ventilation shoes. Yeah, I haven't. 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:46.720 I haven't actually seen any illustrations or animations of how 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:50.080 this actually works, Like, does does the does a little 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.000 bit of the bottom of the chair just open up 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.760 to the to the I mean, who knows. I honestly 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:57.680 do not know the answer to that, because I haven't 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:01.120 seen the illustrations I've seen. I've seen footage of them 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.560 testing out the chairs laying it back into cot form, 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.680 but not the pooping. Well, here's a question I don't 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.760 know if you know the answer to is the cabin pressurized? 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:13.320 Are they flying at such an altitude that they don't 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:16.560 have to pressurize the cabin. Now, the the pictures I've seen, 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:21.959 i've seen them wearing essentially air masks as well, So 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.359 I would imagine that the cabin is not pressurized. But 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:29.439 I also imagine they're not typically flying in an altitude 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.880 where that's too much of a problem. They did, as 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:35.399 I saw, have have masks there because I saw a 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.640 guy who essentially he pulls the mask aside in order 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.200 to eat a little snack cake, drink a little water, 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:44.760 put the mask back on, go on his merry way. Um. 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:47.720 But whether or not the whole thing is pressurized, I 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.439 don't think it is, because again, that would require a 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:52.639 lot of weight to be able to put in the 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:56.240 systems necessary. You have to seal everything off, obviously, because 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:58.520