Solar Impulse, the solar-powered plane, is trying a round-the-world journey, but has struck a significant bump. While the repairs are now being done in the following months, the group intends to learn choices for battery cooling and heating for lots more long routes.
“Despite the hard work of the Solar Impulse team to repair the batteries which overheated in the record breaking oceanic flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, the solar powered airplane of Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg will stay in Hawaii until early spring 2016,” the group stated.
The flight from Japan, which lasted 117 hours and 52 minutes, triggered overheating within the airplane’s batteries. The battery temperature issues had been the result of a high climb, and over insulation, according to the statement.
“While the Mission Team was monitoring [the battery temperature] very closely during the flight, there was no way to decrease the temperature for the remaining duration as each daily cycle requires an ascend to 28,000 feet and descend for optimal energy management.”
Despite the long delay, Solar Impulse’s group insists the problem is not just a failure regarding the technology, but alternatively one of human error when it comes to assessing the cooling requirements.
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