Summer is coming fast, and I got held up with last-minute edits on the recent Arctic council/SWIPA video – so I had to boogie to get this pulled together. Had Dr. Jason Box add some footage and voice overs.
And boy, that footage. This year, we are supporting a ground-breaking new Green Technology for Arctic Exploration – the WindSled.
One of the frustrations of arctic travel is the need for carbon intensive energy at every stage of getting in and out. One possible solution for scientists making measurements on the ice is a wind powered moving base station that can make traverses of the ice sheet with minimal carbon footprint.
In addition, we continue to push to acquire better solar generation capacity for stationary camps on the ice – the amount of solar available in 24 hour sun is considerable, and the technology keeps getting cheaper and more efficient. In a recent ski-traverse of the ice in April, Dr. Box tells me that the main problem with the new panels was too MUCH power, as you’ll see in the vid above.
Dark Snow Project, now in its 5th year, will be supporting Snow Chemist Ross Edwards on a traverse that is underway now – in addition to further activities by myself later in July.
More on those later, but I’ve had an invite to collaborate with the Black and Bloom team that will be midway thru their 3 year project, following on the work that Dark Snow’s Jason Box and Marek Stibal pioneered in 2013 – profiling the variety of darkening agents on the Greenland ice.
Kudos to you folks!
Envious, for the wind sled!
A cold version of Mad Max!
I would so love to drive one of these, but crevasses would be a worry.
However, a cheap solar powered FPV camera on the kite transmitting video back to the sled could give some warning.
Better to have too much solar power rather than too little – the charge controller should take only what it needs to charge the batteries and no more.
(Using a direct connection may work with constant monitoring, but I would not recommend that.)
I just donated $50. Keep up the good work!
I also donated the same amount recently.
And, agreed, keep up the good work.
Just a request on behalf of some of us who donate… it would be nice to see a bit more video posted here of the project. Doesn’t have to be top notch editing in my view.
While specimen sampling and Related activities are ultimately the main purpose of the trip, some of us might like to see some more footage (also including scientists at the “coal face”) from a place we may never get to physically see.