Laser Powered RC Car - KC Space Pirates

[Nadirion1]

what is a conversion ratio of electrical power to beam and beam back to electrical?

[hanbacca]

dang i am going to try that on a micro scale. i ordered a bunch of lasers from china and am going to build a tiny car circuit to test it on.

[KCSpacePirates07]

@hanbacca Be sure and get safety glasses for you and any friends that might come watch. I also would test the power requirements of the car before I spent a lot of money on lasers. Then do the math for how much laser power is required.

[hanbacca]

@KCSpacePirates07 yeah i will; all that i am getting is like 10 5mw laser modules to see if they will even work before i make a bigger financial commitment. Do you find that lasers at the higher wavelength end of the spectrum work better with solar panels? or did you guys use specially made photovoltaics?

[leo4033]

@hanbacca I have a similar question. Why did you decide to use a green laser? If I'm not mistaken, Si's peak responsivity sits at ~960nm which is near-infrared. I'm taking it you made your own solar cell?

[danleafkiller]

@leo4033 We used green lasers for tracking testing. This allowed us to see that the tracking was actually working while the car and climber were powered by batteries. In the shots where you can't see the laser, it was being powered by a 1030nm laser which is in the peak efficiency range of silicon solar cells.

[leo4033]

@hanbacca I have a similar question: why did you use a green laser? Silicon's peak responsivity is at near-infrared wavelengths. I take it you made your own solar cell?

[Marcus60661]

0:53 it did a wheelie :)

[WanaBeRCRacer]

Sweet!!!

[xXShadowRejectsXx]

cool!

[jlass7]

thats a tmaxx hahaha

[xlxshanexlx]

lol its like shane dawsons or somethings music on his videos.. :o

[DocWolph]

I'm sure you've been asked this but: what would this be used for? I can see Lunar exploration, firing a laser as a rover in a shadowed crater, or a space elevator, but is there anything else?

[KCSpacePirates07]

There are a number of small niches where this would work. One example is providing power to aircraft that stay aloft for days or months. like flying cell towers, border patrol, search and rescue.

[DocWolph]

@KCSpacePirates07

Yeah. I see that. Nikolai Tesla's dream of transmitted power realized with Lasers rather than radio or microwaves. Safer that way, too.

[Nadirion1]

@DocWolph Wireless electronics in your house, electric cars that are charged in city by laser installed on buildings (for a fee, of course), solar powerplant in space where real estate is cheap and beam that power to earth

[p00pyourpants]

Hey cool my last name is Goddard

My name: Noah Goddard

[Bmr4life]

Back in 1964, a model helicopter was powered only by a microwave beam.

[KCSpacePirates07]

Yes, I've seen that one. It went up about 10 or so feet indoors. We ran out to around 3/4 of a mile in these tests. Microwaves have a hard time keeping the beam tight over distance.

[stage4turbo]

Do you know where i can see or read about this? thanks, im sure more people other than me are interested in this.

[ilikefire90]

did u test that in el mirage?

[KCSpacePirates07]

It was at Dryden Flight research center. Same place where the sound barrier was broken. We were on the Muroc dry lake bed inside Edward's air force base. I hear that is where Mythbusters filmed the falling bullets episode.

[bestamerica]

stop use 2 number zero on this video,,,

not need it to know it

[kinkrider88]

AWSOMEEEEEe

[Dexterzpoint]

The idea of a "space elevator" is ridiculous. To think that anyone would spend 2 bills on a geosynchronous link just makes me laugh. We all know there will never be a space elevator so why don't you all just get real.

[acabtp]

They probably shouldn't have bothered with crazy ideas like a transcontinental railroad, apollo space program, arpanet/internet, etc. either then, huh?

[meandmyevo]

I agree, the stupid assholes are JUST trying to move us forward technologically. buncha aetheists

[sinkingrob11]

@meandmyevo

What is your point hear explain what your saying more clearly please?

[meandmyevo]

@sinkingrob11 I was just agreeing that without people actually WORKING on these so called ridiculous projects, there would never be any of the great advancements in technology

[gtarbmx]

what's the efficiency of that, 10%?

[KCSpacePirates07]

It is actually worse than 10% depending on how you measure it. In general, cells do better with laser than sunshine. But we are not trying to maximize efficiency for this contest. So we don't even try to catch all of the light. The competition is about power to weight ratio of the climber.

[gtarbmx]

even if the power/weight ratio is extremely large what is the advantage of a device that still requires external power? outside of the competition of course, and in a real life application.

[KCSpacePirates07]

The competition is based on the needs of the Space Elevator. Not that the Space Elevator is just around the corner or anything. But there are other applications. Like powering satellites as they pass though the earths shadow. Or powering aircraft that fly for years on end.

[bmdoublesyou]

this is awesome... when can i buy a lazer powered v12?

[greenboy215]

all I can say is...TESLA. If it werent for him, eh.

[KCSpacePirates07]

I grew up thinking how cool Edison was. As I studied more I learned that Tesla was even more impressive.

[Alquerian]

This is really awesome, I hope you guys win.

[ryharpon]

I've been following the Pirates for 3 years now and It's just amazing to see the progress. Kansas City is proud of you!

[AndyBaker45]

Go Space Pirates! Many folks are out here rooting for you guys.

[soldier4242]

It really boggles my mind to think of all the scientific progress that can be born from mastering this technology.

[Lystanl]

It is nice to see a local team (Kansas City) make it into the finals. I think this is an excellect idea contest to get students interested in Science. I will show this video to my students.

[KCSpacePirates07]

I hope to post more videos in the future as well. Thanks.

[PortmanteauStudio]

It appears you have an excellent idea that I could see applied to many different real-world technologies. I wish you the best I look forward to seeing more videos on this topic!