Results of tests of the Helios Prototype, solar-powered aircraft, could easily impact much more than satellite technology, said a Kauai state legislator. The tests, going on this summer and fall at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking
Results of tests of the Helios Prototype, solar-powered aircraft, could easily impact much more than satellite technology, said a Kauai state legislator.
The tests, going on this summer and fall at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands near Kekaha, could help lead to change of the world’s mindset about the energy future, said state Rep. Mina Morita, D-north Kauai-east Kauai.
That sea change could herald a move away from a fossil-fuel-based energy economy to a renewable-energy world, she said. It would represent a radical, “philosophical shift” that could make relationships with oil-rich Middle Eastern countries less important than they are today, she said.
A late-July flight at PMRF if successful will demonstrate the ability of an electric aircraft to perform a long mission without using any fossil-based fuel or contributing to environmental pollution, according to a NASA spokesman.
The world’s automobile makers are heavy into development of hydrogen fuel-cell-powered vehicles, and in Hawaii Morita as chair of the House Committee on Energy and Environmental Protection has been at the forefront of encouraging hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels.
The potential different applications for hydrogen fuel cells is “mind-boggling,” she said.
The type of regenerative system being tested at PMRF could lead to a change in the mindset about how things can work and are propelled, “and you already have that in hybrid (electric and gas) cars,” she said.
Specifically, successful tests at PMRF could lead to development of aircraft that could replace satellites and provide more complete coverage for cellular telephones and other uses.
“It could change the whole outlook for telecommunications, and communications in general,” she said.
“I’m optimistic that eventually they’ll get it to work,” she said of Helios. “Just the fact that it’s happening on Kauai really puts the spotlight on us, and we should take advantage of that.”
Planners hope the experiment will serve to validate fuel-cell technology for high-altitude airborne applications. Under development now are two more-advanced versions of the experimental system. The goal for those aircraft is the ability to remain airborne from two weeks to six months at a time.
Planned for September is a commercial demonstration mission with the Helios carrying a payload of telecommunications equipment on behalf of Japanese governmental and private interests.
That flight will test state-of-the-art telecommunications systems in the stratosphere.
The Helios Prototype is testing the long-range potential of an aircraft that could soon replace satellites, using a combination of solar power by day and hydrogen, fuel-cell technology by night.
A successful flight utilizing both the solar and hydrogen technologies would be another “milestone” for NASA and civilian contractors, said Alan Brown, a spokesman at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.
The Helios, designed by AeroVironment of California, will attempt to remain airborne for 40 hours next month. That’s nearly two days and nights. The flight is scheduled to be under hydrogen power for at least 14 hours, at altitudes around 50,000 feet. That’s 9.4 miles up, or around the distance from Lihue to Kapaa.
To date, integration and testing of the system has been completed, and one checkout flight flown. During that flight, a problem occurred in the hydrogen system, and the unmanned craft had to land early.
Crews fly the Helios remotely from a building near PMRF’s runway, and from a chase van on the runway. For more information including photos, please see the Web site, http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
