Bond would kill for this Lotus-developed biofueled Antarctic speeder
For the engineering crew at Lotus, building transportation devices that are not sports cars is nothing new. Back in the early 90s they put their knowledge of lightweight materials and aerodynamics together to create a race bicycle that tore up the velodrome at the Olympics, not to mention wild soap box racers. The latest project is a three ski snow speeder that will be used in an Antarctic expedition next November to raise awareness of climate change. The Concept Ice Vehicle (CIV) is powered by a two cylinder BMW bike engine converted to E85 operation and turning a propeller that pushes the vehicle across the ice and snow at up to 84 mph. The CIV will be used to scout for crevasses in the ice. When the voids are found the GPS coordinates will be sent back to the rest of the team to warn them before anyone falls in.
[Source: Wired]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nom de plume 2:59PM (1/06/2009)
So the plan is to run around the Antarctic burning fuel and emitting CO2 to stop climate change. This is after burning a lot of fossil fuel to haul all this the needless gear down there. Morons!
Expeditions have crossed Antarctica using human power only. Ask Reinhold Messner how it's done.
Talk about green washing.
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meme 3:56PM (1/06/2009)
The faster you move, the less man hours you need. The less man hours you need, the less gear you have to haul down to Antarctica to keep your people alive and operating during that time. That takes far, far more energy than burning a few extra gallons of gas. Any antarctic expedition on the move should want to go as quickly as possile while still achieving their objectives.
Phil L. 9:09AM (1/07/2009)
Robert Falcon Scott went the human-powered-Antarctic expedition route, too.
Didn't work out so well for him...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Falcon_Scott
Reinhold Messner skied across Antarctica - but I'll bet he got to the continent in something that burned dead dinosaurs.
Tim 4:28PM (1/06/2009)
Here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Qp0hRs2VQ
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Chris M 12:00AM (1/07/2009)
Um, what goes ahead of this thing and warns it of crevasses? Or do they simply order up another when one goes down - waay down - in one of those crevasses?
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mike 11:34AM (1/07/2009)
Seems they omitted that one little detail in the post and in the Wired article. The expedition site mentions that it has forward looking radar that penetrates the ice.
I wonder how a fan will be practical once a ski is required to climb an obstacle of even minor size. With a tire or track the rotation of the tread will help to pull it up and over. And with no locking differential like technology what's to prevent the whole thing from becoming an over sized sit and spin when an outer ski gets good and truely stuck?
Richard 7:11AM (1/07/2009)
"Die another day, Mr. Bond!"
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Glenn 12:20PM (1/07/2009)
Wouldn't want to find the crevice while going 84 miles per hour.
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Ade 12:34PM (3/03/2009)
Hahaha Glen "wouldn't want to find the crevice whilst going 84 miles per hour" but saying so one would hope that at that speed you'd simply fly over the crevice (one can only hope).
Anyways I found out their site its http://www.transantarcticexpedition.com/ (if anyone is interested). They are doing a good thing, raising awareness especially for our ignorant kids.
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