Dyson Awards: Edward Linnacre's AirDrop Irrigation

[1stREMESquaddie]

I would like to know more on how one puts something like this together. Looking at living in the provinces without water wells .

I

[marauder08901]

"But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!"

[DrSwaraj1]

Dr. Swaraj Mukherjee

UNIVIRON

317B, Jodhpur Park,

Kolkata 700068,

India.

tel: +91-33-24994575, Mobile: +918697230686, +919836361784, dr.swaraj@in.com, mindmagix@gmail.com

[DrSwaraj1]

It's a brilliant idea. Copper can be replaced by Strong but less expensive engineering plastic. pH @4 is a factor to be reviewed. Could you make one sample available for experimentation and feed back to you for its application in arid and semi arid areas in India.

[TheElusive]

AMAZING!! Or, as one guy (so perfectly) said, 'Hey, it worked on Tatooine'. LOL Classic!

[eualadindeal]

so... who's paying Frank Herbert? He invented the concept for fuck's sake!

No one seem to remember Dune... hmm

[phxgreenspan]

We should put one of these on a balloon. GreenSpanTheGlobe dotcom and PlantMySeed dotorg

Alan Greenspan

[thurstjo1963]

Congrats on your design. I was thinking of doing this for the last year.

[bahello]

awesome idea and very practical

this could very well be mass produced and used throughout our world in relatively short time!

[Perkunvaikis]

super!

[dramey03]

this is very intelligent

if done in desert climates, it would be most efficient with hydroponic or aquaponic technology that utilized a closed loop system in order to not waste water on soil and keep water from being exposed to desert air as the water can be kept in pipes and be delivered straight to roots

very interesting, and he said it was only weeks of prototypes, which means with further development it can become more efficient and use less power

[vutEwa]

@dramey03 regarding wasting water, you don't want a closed loop, that's how you get contaminated water. you want to recycle the water like nature does. mimic nature, not invent something in place of it. and really piping water to roots is not a very good idea. you want to encourage the roots to find the water themselves by going straight down. if you irrigate, they will not go down, they will go sideways and then you now must irrigate for life.

[refreshho]

I would rather dig a hole for (and maintain) a vertical storage tank. Make the case a two-person coring bit.

I'm having a hard time understanding the "reversed" blades of the turbine when relying on wind --wouldn't it just spin the other way? ...unless the wind draws air out and, when no wind, the solar reverses the spin and draws air in e.g. reversing the flow through the system.

It seems like the above ground portion could be minimized to a squatty turbine with thin-film PV on the blades.

[bf2lover42]

But removing moisture from air results in higher evaporation rates in the plants.

Does the air humidity get replaced fast enough during droughts?

[dramey03]

@bf2lover42

if done on a large scale, i could see it being used to transform landscapes and possibly even be used as a terraforming tool

i would imagine, as air is turned to water, more air fills in to take the place of the lost air, as water is removed, it sucks up more from outlying regions, if enough water is available in nearby regions, i would imagine with proper development the replacement rate could be made sufficient enough to possibly turn a desert into an oasis or maybe even aforest

[bf2lover42]

@dramey03 "terraforming tool" that would require a planet with an atmosphere warm enough to have water in gaseous state. Air is not "transformed" into water. That would require a chemical process that would make the cost skyrocket.

Air is not lost. Simply it gets the water removed from it.

[soupful]

@bf2lover42 Exactly.

[vutEwa]

@dramey03 this is already possible without irrigation! :) there's several really good examples too. one of them in morocco is 1000 years old and has dates, olives, pomegranates, bananas and some other fruits.

[Alargator]

Someone give this man a Nobel Peace Prize. If this is cheap and effective, it could revolutionize farming in dry and arid environments... and possibly give lots of food and clean water to people who really need it.

[goldbug2008]

Good luck great idea.

[2874861]

what was the day time / night time temperature, as we can get 45 C or more in day time and 30 c plus at night in summer; what crops can be irrigated with this technology like rice, sugarcane, etc

[PenofGod]

Men like this make a truly meaningful and helpful impact on the world. He actually made it work for the people who need it most. My day just got a little bit brighter, knowing smart people still like helping the rest of humanity.

[HeitorFernadoMaia]

ok he explained...it's possible...

[HeitorFernadoMaia]

Is it a renewable source of water??? Is it possible to extract moisture from the air over and over again?

[Psued0Name]

YES!

google for the phrase "water cycle"

[BrooksWoodworks]

Wish I could try one out when I travel to Az this winter. It would be a good test to see how it works.

[jasoneric]

I really hope this is made affordable and accessible to poor farmers! This is amazing, could save lives and most certainly help many people!

[AustinOConnellVideos]

is this water drinkable? like could you put these in africa for people to use as a means of drinking water?

[guarddt]

great idea, but that last statement "I've proved the concept works, therefore it can be implemented in a large scale." is very very convoluted and loaded with misconception.

[zenideal]

ok sounds great but lets see it functioning thereto a litre at least  fast forwarded time framed

[BlueLotus108]

Absolutely brilliant but... condensate in copper will cause copper to leech from the tubing and is toxic to plants. The pH of the condensate is 4 which has it's own problems to be addressed. changing to stainless steel is a better material to use.

[DingoBabyEat]

@BlueLotus108 plus copper isn't cheap any more...not here in Australia anyway...although I imagine he just used what was laying around to build his prototype

[MX6Maximus]

@BlueLotus108 more-so if the copper oxidizes. Good call.

[mikrobluess]

@BlueLotus108 only in sufficient amounts, would they be poisonous to higher organisms, at lower concentrations it is an essential trace nutrient to all higher plant and animal life.

In a system proposed here it would be no problem at all, in fact it would be good for the plants.

[hahftmxpknvuu]

Now all we need is thumpers to scare those nasty sandworms!

[nikedunks7]

Congrats on your award.

[twasbrillig33]

Great! but it really needs a demonstration. 

[stefankengen]

Awesome! Nobel Prize material :)

[truckietrev1]

Excelent creative out of the box thinking. This invention has a huge future A+++++:)

[LTDreams]

Good Job