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Earth Medicine Transportation Technology

Fuel Cell Drone Makes An Epic Ocean Crossing (newatlas.com) 31

Posted by BeauHD from the mission-accomplished dept.
Earlier this week, a hydrogen-powered delivery drone managed to make a one-hour, 43-minute ocean crossing. New Atlas reports: The exercise was the result of a collaboration between Texas-based drone development company Guinn Partners, Georgia-based Skyfire Consulting, the U.S. Department of Health, and drone manufacturer Doosan Mobility Innovation -- the latter supplied the aircraft, a hydrogen fuel cell-powered DS30 octocopter. Utilizing its temperature-controlled payload system, the drone was used to transport live bacteria samples from a hospital on the Caribbean island of St. Croix to a testing facility on the neighboring island of St. Thomas. This involved crossing 43 miles (69 km) of open ocean. Upon successfully reaching its destination, the copter reportedly still had almost 30 minutes of flight time left on its fuel cell.
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Fuel Cell Drone Makes An Epic Ocean Crossing More

Fuel Cell Drone Makes An Epic Ocean Crossing

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  • 43 miles is an "epic ocean crossing"? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by glenebob ( 414078 ) on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:05PM (#59418770)

    More like, this article is epic stupidity.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Z80a ( 971949 )

      For a drone that's quite a lot, specially given it is a quite small beast.

      • It isn't surprising that if you use a HFC you can get more range than with a battery.

        • Re:43 miles is an "epic ocean crossing"? (Score:4, Informative)

          by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Friday November 15, 2019 @10:51PM (#59419096)

          It isn't surprising that if you use a HFC you can get more range than with a battery.

          Aviation is the area where hydrogen makes the most sense. It is light and has a much higher energy density than batteries.

          Unlike batteries, the fuel is consumed en route, so the landing weight is lower and thus safer.

          The biggest challenge is routine safe handling of cryogenic liquid H2.

      • Seems like many years ago a USAF drone did an actual ocean crossing. Of course it was quite a bit bigger... If I recall (long time ago and don't feel like looking it up) the major headline is that it performed the crossing autonomously.

    • Re:43 miles is an "epic ocean crossing"? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Immerman ( 2627577 ) on Friday November 15, 2019 @08:25PM (#59418832)

      That's not even epic for a mosquito - they just call it a windy day.

      Calling a hop between two islands an "ocean crossing" is really stretching the term. It's like calling walking between two crossbars on a sidewalk a "street crossing". Yes, technically you're crossing street, but you never got close to either side, and both sides are generally involved in a "street crossing"

      Click-bait headline aside though, it does sound like really useful technology. I'm not sure I'd pick an octo-copter as my vehicle of choice for crossing those kinds of distances, but it sounds like it gets the job done.

      • According to Wikipedia, both islands are in the Caribbean Sea, so really stretching the description of "ocean crossing".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      More like, this article is epic stupidity.

      Like most of what the press reports these days, really. It is a nice demonstration though that fuel-cell powered drones are viable technologically. Now they need to be so economically as well.

    • The headline was indeed fucking retarded but Beau had to step-up since /.'s Incredibly-Stupid Headline Specialist (Msmash) is apparently AWOL.
    • It is over the horizon, so for an autonomous drone, it's not bad...
    • The headline is not just stupid it is factually incorrect. St. Croix is in the Caribbean sea so this was a sea crossing, not an ocean crossing.
  • A drone that can travel at the astonishing speed of 25 miles per hour. Probably would have been much quicker if it wasn't stuck in a school zone the whole trip across the epic ocean crossing.
    • 25 MPH is the speed limit everywhere on the ocean; after all, the fish all travel in schools...

      • 25 MPH is the speed limit everywhere on the ocean; after all, the fish all travel in schools...

        And, unlike our schools, all their shootings only happen in barrels.

  • 95% of the hydrogen in the market comes from fossil fuels. Though hydrogen can be made from renewables, it is very expensive and non competitive. Even batteries+wind+solar are cheaper than hyrdrogen.

    Hydrogen is actively promoted mostly by oil companies hoping to green wash themselves.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z80a ( 971949 )

      Hydrogen seems to have a lot of "cans". You can make it from fossil fuels without emitting CO2, but they don't, you can use nuclear or solar power to generate it with electrolysis but they don't etc..

    • Seriously though, if hydrogen research improved the technology to where it was green and cheaper than alternatives, would you really complain?

      That's why we continue to do research in many ways.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Hydrogen is useless for passenger cars, but may be useful for commercial vehicles such as busses and big rigs. Might be good for ships and aircraft, too.
      • There is not enough R&D dollars going into Hydrogen.

        Battery tech is still evolving, performance (y axis) vs R&D spending (x axist) has not plateaued yet. Cellphone, tablet, laptop companies are pouring money into this, they are willing to pay as much as 300 $/kWh, but they got that price, now they want lighter more energy density. Automotive companies are pouring money into it, they want to reach 80 $/kWh. Currently at 12-0 to 140$/kWh. The energy density is good enough for now, but better would b

  • Title should be: drone flies 43 miles over water
    FTFY

    • Title should be: drone flies 43 miles over water FTFY

      Back off, Homer. We've got a true Odyssey now!

      Epic headshot noscope 420 drone ocean crossing!

  • 43 miles in 1 hour, 43 minutes.

    So 25 mph.

    A winged drone could have done that much faster and gone farther.

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