Weather conditions delayed their departure from China, later forcing the team to abort their initial Pacific crossing and land in Japan. And the swirling weather system is constantly evolving and changing. Because the plane travels on a sinuous path-climbing to nearly 30,000 feet elevation during the day but slowly descending to roughly 5,000 feet at night to save energy-the team has to forecast wind, humidity and temperature at multiple elevations. This airy construction also meant that even a small spot of foul weather or winds would easily whip the plane off course.Īs the documentary details, weather became the team's biggest foe. Its wings couldn't tip more than five degrees, otherwise the craft might spin out of control thanks to its low weight and expansive size. Each slept only in short intervals to tend to the plane's demands. Piccard and Borschberg traded off flying the plane for the 17 legs of the venture. Solar Impulse was grounded for repairs in Hawaii after its batteries overheated during its five-day flight across the Pacific Ocean. These cells bask in the sunlight, charging the plane's four lithium batteries to keep its propellers spinning through the dark nighttime hours. A staggering 17,248 photovoltaic solar cells-each one roughly the thickness of a human hair-blankets the delicate wings and fuselage. The plane boasts a wingspan larger than a B-747 jumbo jet, but only weighs around 5,000 pounds, which is comparable to an average family car. The result of all of this work, Solar Impulse 2, is certainly a feat of engineering. Every component was tested and optimized, right down to the glue binding the carbon fiber structure. And that's what we did for the next 13 years." The duo reached out to investors, engineers, industry partners and more to develop the plane. "When you announce officially," says Borschberg, "there is no way back afterwards. The pair officially announced the project in 2003. Borschberg was consulting for the institute (which he describes as "The MIT of Switzerland") and was intrigued by Piccard's idea. So Piccard turned to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology where he connected with André Borschberg, an engineer and entrepreneur who trained as a pilot in the Swiss Air Force. “ said I was just dreaming." In order to have enough solar panels to power its propellers, the plane would have to be massive-but at the same time, extremely light. "Everyone said it was impossible,” he says. Piccard reached out to potential partners in the aviation industry, but was met with resistance. Eventually, he figured it out: lose the fuel. During that venture, he watched his fuel level drop day after day, worrying if he'd have enough, which left him wondering if there was a better way. Solar Impulse is the brainchild of Bertrand Piccard, a psychiatrist and explorer who came up with the idea after his 1999 nonstop spin around the world in a hot air balloon. Now, a new NOVA documentary, The Impossible Flight, airing tonight on PBS, dives into both the challenges and the triumphs of completing this harrowing trip around the world, giving audiences a taste of the passion that drove the Solar Impulse team, and their soaring optimism about the future of energy. The sun's vibrant rays supplied the craft's only power. After 14 months of travel and 550 hours in the air, the plane had accomplished what many had deemed impossible: traveling 25,000 miles around the world-over four continents, two oceans and three seas-without a drop of liquid fuel. These measurements should help researchers understand how the sun blasts out the energetic particles that make up the solar wind, as well as the mystery of why the outermost layer of the sun is hotter than the inner layers.In the wee hours of July 26, 2016, Solar Impulse 2 landed in Abu Dhabi to eager crowds and cameras. While the spacecraft is close to the sun, its goals lie beneath the surface – the probe is designed to measure the magnetic fields in the region and trace the flow of energy within the sun. At that pace, it will be almost three times faster than the previous record-holders, a pair of spacecraft called the Helios probes that studied the sun in the 1970s.Īt its closest, the Parker Solar Probe will be just less than 7 million kilometres from the sun, more than 6 times closer to it than the Helios probes were, which held the record until Parker broke it in 2018. That proximity will help it swing by at increasing speeds, with a planned top speed of around 200 kilometres per second. Read more: NASA’s closest ever flight to the sun answers solar wind mystery
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