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Comment by mjb | Hacker News Reader

Metallurgy is super interesting. The fact that metals - these crystals that would be super brittle and stiff except for a few dislocations - can creep like this is amazing.

My (slightly) tongue-in-cheek proposal for Arecibo: drones. Instead of trying to hold one big antenna up with huge cables, you use an array of antennas flying above the dish on drones. This allows for low cost, easy beam steering (within the limits of the shape of the dish), adaptation for different frequencies, quick stowing when weather arrives, etc. Even station-keeping to the required accuracy doesn't seem that hard (you might have to do some active phase correction). Disadvantages are that you'd need to digitize on each drone (which might bust the whole scheme, SNR-wise), and that drones are quite electrically noisy.

More here: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2021/08/11/arecibo.html

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Anyone that remotely touches any ODEs relating to this line of work just had a heart attack and fainted.

We don't need a roaring 20's prohibition-era jiggly jazz fest on our energy packets, this sounds absolutely nightmarish for anyone below a management position having to work with it. :(|)

Interesting - you might be on to something. Hmm, maybe it's not quite drones (because the limitations you mentioned like electronic noise, etc) maybe it's some other autonomous swarming unit. Maybe they are drones, but you use some kind of floatation like helium or hydrogen to reduce power needed and therefore noise. Maybe you physically connect each of them in some way in a compression/tension webbing that can be adjusted to control swam unit positions instead of using drone propellers. Fun idea :)

I think the hurricanes and storms would do more than "shake, not stir" the drones, especially the helium-filled drones ;)

DJIs biggest drone is over 1m wide and can carry a 6 kg payload.

If you could make a suitable receiver that weighed 6 kg or even 600kg, you could just suspend it from motorized plastic cables on space frame towers. Drones aren't going to make it cheaper or easier.

I suspect you could make the receivers weigh single digit grams, depending on the band.

"If you were plowing a field, which would you rather use: two strong oxen or 1024 chickens?" -Seymore Cray

Chickens apply fertilizer as they plow.

As do the oxen.

I wonder how well the poop/work ratio scales between chickens and oxen?

Oxen are herbivores which need to eat a lot more to provide the necessary nutrition and that would translate to greater volume. OTOH chickens are smaller animals with greater surface area to mass and might require more energy to maintain body temperature.

I dunno.

Why would you use drones rather than a flat stationary phased array?

The electrical noise from the drones is probably insurmountable.

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