Hugh Bollinger / Sunday, July 24, 2011

Helios rising

Legend has it that Icarus needed to escape capture by the Minoans of Crete so his father-- the master craftsman, Daedalus --built him a set of wings of feathers and wax and Icarus flew away like a god. Sadly, Icarus got cocky, flew to close to the sun, the wax melted, and he fell to his death. Perhaps if Icarus had been able to strap on solar cells for wings, his early attempt at flight might have turned out more successfully. The master craftsmen at NASA have demonstrated that potential with their experimental airplane appropriately named, Helios. Homer tells us that Helios-- named after the sun --drove a solar powered chariot each day across the sky. NASA's modern version of a chariot successfully took flight off the Hawaiian island of Kauai and flew at 40mph to nearly 10,000 feet above the ocean. Such remote controlled, non-rocket powered, flight technology like Helios might be useful to explore other worlds someday. [caption id="attachment_5863" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Helios, solar airplane (source: NASA)"]

[/caption] Hopefully, Helios will only capture the power from the Sun's energy to rise into the skies and stay aloft. WHB

Gale Crater here we come Earthfest 2011- Perspectives, Patience, Action by Joe Andrade

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Helios rising

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