Weather stops plastic waste car reaching South Pole
A car made from waste plastic has been forced to abort its mission to the South Pole because of bad weather.
Solar Voyager was set to be the first solar-powered expedition to reach the world’s most southernmost point.
But despite it being Antarctica’s summer, unexpected heavy snow has meant progress has been slow, and now the team have had to turn around.
The team from Holland say they’ve still achieved their main mission: to prove plastic waste can be put to good use, though they’d rather people avoided using single-use plastic altogether.
HT/PM
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Unfortunately, they tried to drive it where the sun don’t shine (all of the time)…
And here it was I thought that they were purposefully driving as to keep the solar panels aimed at the sun (in circles)
Disappearing up their own a…
. . . they’d have been much better off sticking with their sets and props.
This confirms that travelling by foot is still superior to solar pv travel.
Well…Solar only stands a chance of functioning 1 day per year in Antarctica
In the Antarctic summer, the sun does shine all the time. But it doesn’t shine much and when it’s snowing, nearly none at all.
But who would have expected heavy snow in Antarctica! It is summer! And there is global warming!
And what about the katabatic winds down there – they would probably catch the solar panels and blow the lightweight plastic trailers to hell.
I wonder where the hundreds of thousands of $ for this loopy ‘research’ project came from. Oh – the taxpayers of course.
“..but the seller told us that these ‘new, super’ solar panels STILL GIVE SIGNIFICANT OUTPUT IN CLOUDY CONDITIONS!!”
Significant, as in a significant digit less?
I once used a small panel to (try and) keep some batteries charged, and installed a simple digital amp-meter to monitor the output. On a bright summers day a single cumulus cloud would reduce the output by 30-40%, and an overcast summers day would be more like a 50-60% reduction. As for a gloomy winter day – 10% of the nominal output, if I was lucky…
I don’t think they had a inclination of thought!
I think it has been less than 48 hours since I noted that if they are unlucky, they may have close to zero help from solar power, since cloudy weather is more the rule than the exception down there.
I winder how the wind was in those snow storms they hit?
200 mph would seem to make headway difficult in a vehicle like that.
Given the size of the sails, I mean solar panels, 200mph from the side should be enough to flip the whole thing over.
Oh dear. What a shame. Never mind🤮
That was quick.
Survival rate of these projects is diminishing at an exponential rate?
They gave up. Mission accomplished.
Will the motor and the drive train made from waste plastic be shown in a museum?
No, it’ll end up floating in the Pacific. 🙂
This could be considered “proof of concept”, but it also demonstrates that considerably more is required to make the concept into something feasible for mass consumption. Recycling plastic is not a new effort and nothing was proven by that; solar panels are not a new product and the only thing that was demonstrated was their limitations. This is similar to the solar car races in Australia where large, ungainly vehicles seating one person race across the desert using solar power to charge batteries to run a motor to turn the wheels. That’s a long way from a truck with a 1,000 lb. payload in its bed.
It seems they got the vehicle out of there.
How?
By using fossil-fueled vehicles of course
It’s tough to design equipment for polar conditions, not just cold, but the winds and the hazardous terrain—snow chasms.
Of course, someone will blame the heavy snow on AGW.
“…when it’s possible on Antarctica, it’s also possible at your own home.”
She tries to equate going solar-only in the desert of Antarctica to going solar-only at home? She only made it for 30-days! That’s pathetic (both the performance and the quote).
Especially when you have nights in the Netherlands but perpetual daytime in Antarctica at this time of year.
I am not impressed. Decades ago, Andy Griffith went to the moon and back for profit! He used junk and his own money to make it happen. Virtue signalling wasn’t even a thing back then! Oh…the good ole days.
i used to watch that show forgot all about it
Watching that made me want to go play Kerbal Space Program.
^¿^
Now clean up the mess!! Pack your trash out.
In the video they claim that since they were able to drive around in a solar powered car in Antarctica for 30 days that anyone can power their lives with solar power.
Why are we still shipping oil to Antarctica?
Because the nuclear power station there was decommissioned.
https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=2176
Only a milli\sarc on this reply. At least the reactor operated for ten years instead of just a month for the solar panels.
Unfortunately current human lifespans are greater than 30 days, but they are working on that.
BTW there is a BIG difference between surviving and thriving.
Some details from their blog are missing but in the 9 December report, that had only traveled 40 kilometers.
Dog sleds would have been several times more efficient. Essentially, they proved that hope, change and idealism are no match for inconvenient truths like; low power density, savage cold, and misconceived notions.
But hey; as true deniers, their nonsensical attempt is billed as a success. Meanwhile, back on Earth, real people search for solutions to plastic waste problems.
Unless you are running the Iditarod, you are going to do about 45 km tops with a dog team, considering camp set up and breakdown, and the care the dogs require.
That’s a remarkable pace. Amundsen did it with dogs and low-tech clothing in 1912.
“Meanwhile, back on Earth, real people search for solutions to plastic waste problems.”
Such as severely punishing the Asian countries that are dumping most of it into our oceans.
But noooo … we ban straws in places that don’t dump them. There are plenty of holes in the ground looking for some good plastic fill.
Chemistry and biochemistry will solve this problem.
Pardon me if I’m intruding but didn’t Scott survive for some time eating the dogs? I don’t think eating recycled plastic is particularly nourishing. Just an observation of some of the issues in surviving one of the most inhospitable locations on earth. Maybe I need the /sarc tag here.
No, Scott starved because he didn’t use dogs. He used ponies which were totally unsuited to the weather and died, and he ended up man-hauling.
Amundsen, on the other hand, trained with the Inuit on sled dogs and used 5em well. He did deliberately plan on eating about half the dogs on the way back to save on hauling dog rations. (He also deliberately let them access the latrine. Dogs will eat and can extract nourishment from human feces).
You’d think it would have caterpillar tracks if it was a serious attempt.
[You should fix typo in your email~mod]
Maybe he meant it exactly as he wrote. LOL
Global warming causes science projects (virtue signaling) to fail.
These people keep telling us global warming will produce more snow. Don’t they read their own propaganda?
That was after they told us “snow will become a thing of the past”.
Climate theologians can have their cake and eat it too.
So they just thought Mother Nature would be amenable to their virtue signaling?
This is so anti-science it makes my head hurt.
The should have consulted with Hyundai. They re-created the failed Shackleton expedition with modified Santa Fe’s and staffed by descendents of the original expedition members. It was really smart PR and the best part was: just like the original, nobody died.
There are a bunch of write-ups; one sample is here.
There also youtube videos. If I get the HTML right, one will be below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-8X50BkbpQ&w=560&h=315%5D
[Santa Fe’s? .mod]
Found a better youtube video:
Damn; I can’t get the embed code right. Try this: https://youtu.be/53Qy1IfXMUk
Looks like Hyundai is trying to sell cars to all the Antarctica climate scientists.
Imagine, snow in Antarctica…..
great, shame it wasn’t a ship full of more Darwin award candidates…
NO SUN, what a suprise, hey we don’t use any fossil fuel except to have people who do get us out of the sh..t!
I’m still curious who pays to get such people out of the Kaka, akademik shokalskiy and all the other dreamers to come.
This was predictable. These people failed to do their homework on how to traverse the Antarctic terrain and the usual norm of bad weather. A good read is “Mawson’s Will” , which is how he survived a failed quest to reach the South Pole.
It was actually a survey trip along the coast towards the east.
Solar powered huh?
Hmmm…maybe with the size of those panels, it drove around from wind power!!
“We don’t use any fossil fuels” – except the fossil fuels to get to Antarctica and back. And the fossil fuels to process that waste plastic into a car. And the fossil fuels to produce, process, and ship the food they ate. And…
And the fossil fuels to rescue them..
I hope the polar bears don’t eat them before they can be rescued.
Ummm…polar bears???
The winged black version….
Don’t be too hard on Ron L — he was just suffering some momentary cognitive failure, due to the SURGING levels of CO2.
In his right mind, at CO2 levels at the starvation level for plants, he would have correctly realized the real danger to solar drivers in the South Pole — rabid penguins turned into vampires by attacking space aliens.
My cognition is a bit sharper, because I have large numbers of Venus fly traps surrounding me, to which I feed morsels of climate alarmists, as a supplement to their normal fly cuisine.
Off to find something more constructive to say on the next go ’round. (^_^)
Well, David, how about ravenous killer penguins…the raptors of Antarctica, which have evolved that way due to climate change?
Ooh, this could be fun. Guess what their primary food source would be!
Regards and Happy Holidays,
Bob
No bears down south, No penguins up north, i wonder if they have a peace treaty and have divided the world up.
I shall blame the Russian bears for meddling in the Arctic-Antiarctic division of the world between those cute white fuzzy cuddly polar bares and the mean screeching waddle-footed winged vegetarian-wanna-be-fish-eating oily-fossil-fueled penguins.
The only predators that far south are the skuas, which will happily eat just about anything, but won’t attack living prey larger than penguin hatchlings.
Leopard seals and orcas patrol those waters, but they won’t attack terrestrial vehicles.
BTW according to accounts from Shackleton’s expeditions penguins are not very tasty.
I’ve witnessed a Skua defending a nest attack a full grown man. It was hilarious.
Well, we could always be un-charitable at this time of year and make the scathing comment that the killer penguins might be eco warriors and be vegetarians – because there ARE a lot of GREENS down in the Antarctic after-all, and we all know its better for the earth if GREENS are consumed!!!
Oh dear – I do have a sick mind.
Now I know what to ask for for Xmas and my resolution on New Years eve.
All the best – for the season, to EVERYONE, even I must say, those which would wish us otherwise – like Prof Todd May.
There were terror birds in South America. Fossils have been found.
They had to come from somewhere. Maybe “terror penguins”?
No fossils of terror penguins have been found because they’re still down there?
(Maybe they took out the South-Polar Bears?)
There actually were “Terror-birds” in Antarctica too back in the Eocene, when the continents were connected, but they are only very distantly related to penguins (which already existed back then).
Polar bears? Surely you mean the penguins
Arktos means bear, (as in the constellations) Hence the origin of Arctic. (not 100% sure on this but I read it someplace.)
Ant-arctic seems to mean (not the arctic) so you can use that to remember.
Antarctic = no bears (literally)
Arctic = bears (literally)
Not reall. It comes from greek ἀντι- ‘against, opposite’. So antarctic means opposite to the arctic which it is.
Just remember, Penguin down under, no one else can ‘bear’ it!
Polar bears? Meh.
Leopard Seals, Killer Whales, maddedned penguins, CAGW0-induced “scientists”?
Which is the most dangerous to life, liberty, and the pursuit of hoppiness?
(Aren’t Penguins the ultimate vegetarians? After all, they eat fish, not “real” meat. /s
We’ve been down this road before, with you deniers. I have a refrigerator magnet from Seaworld in Orlando with polar bears and penguins co-existing. Who do you believe, a bunch of amateur scientists/deniers or a refrigerator magnet?
They didn’t even had the chance to encounter THE THING.
Ah! I see I’m not the only mad scientist who wants to transplant a polar bear colony to the south pole and a penguin colony to the north!
While I think Ron Long was “drolling”, he also seems to have succeeded in trolling a bunch of readers.
That’s right Kevin, I’m bad (and according to my wife getting worse). The magnet from Seaworld is for real and the saleslady told me if was for Antarctica because she was sure there were no penguins at the northpole. She had a pin on her blouse that said “Bryn Mar”, which sounds to me like one of those Scottish secret drinking sociaties.
Bryn Mar sounds more Welsh to me.
As for the Scottish secret drinking societies, have you been looking into my lounge window from across the river? Shame on you.
Giant Albino Penguins maybe?
A Lovecraft fan I presume?
I read, I laughed, and then this.
When I looked at the first pictures with the deep ruts in the snow, I knew they were doomed. There is a reason why virtually all vehicles used in the snow are tracked.
Only truly stupid people would not research the conditions and realize that fact. Being highly educated does not protect you from being stupid. Arrogance is the main symptom. How many more stupid people with virtually no experience, or thinking ability will put themselves and many others at risk?
Tracked vehicles have higher rolling resistance than pumped-up tires. Solar power wouldn’t have been able to turn tracks as easily.
And, as far as I could see from the photo, the solar panels weren’t STEERABLE! Even in the polar regions, the Sun still moves across the sky! So, seeing as the trailers had fore-and-aft solar panel direction – were they going to point them due North? Which, of course means that they would be going around in a constant-latitude circle…
I just knew they would not make it, what a silly notion.
People gave gobs of money to fly/ship people and things to Antartica to have a 4 wheel cab apparently pull two trailers across snow on snow-chained wheels.
If it wasn’t built with tracks they are quickly stuck. Note the video does show them trying to shovel the thing out of a drift.
Won’t surprise me if it is abandoned as well (the vehicle). Glad they abandoned the craziness early enough that it didn’t end in fatalities.
Hard for me to believe the heater in that was solar only. 30 days of travel and heat would surprise me. I am not sure that is possible unless they had a bank of 100’s of large deep cycle batteries that were already fully charged when began.
“A car made from waste plastic has been forced to abort its mission to the South Pole because of bad weather.”
Bad weather ? …In the Antarctic? And they couldn’t foresee this ? Guess they didn’t use the right “climate Model”…..,D’OH !