“The light under the drone was melted, and sensors were damaged from the extreme heat. He reports that the drone still works, but the vision sensor underneath no longer functions and gives constant errors during flights.“
The first problem is there's not enough lava. Per a few sources there have been about 6 billion tons/tonnes of solid plastic waste since the mid-20th century; assuming the density of PVC, .05 g/cm^3, my napkin math says this is over 100 cubic kilometers of plastic waste, or enough to build a small volcano on its own.
(edit) You said "ignoring the logistics" so I agree with the other commenter, the outgassing of the burning would be environmentally devastating. Lava doesn't instantly vaporize things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXJfg_JIUZA
I imaging the outgassing of the plastic would be pretty terrible but the volcanic gas is pretty damaging too. But yes, I imagine there are a hundred different reasons this wouldn't really work out.
> temperatures, 870 to 1,200 °C (1,400 to 2,200 °F), are used to volatilize and combust (in the presence of oxygen) halogenated and other refractory organics in hazardous wastes. Often auxiliary fuels are employed to initiate and sustain combustion. The destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) for properly operated incinerators exceeds the 99.99% requirement for hazardous waste and can be operated to meet the 99.9999% requirement for PCBs and dioxins. Off gases and combustion residuals generally require treatment.
And lava is in the range of 700 °C to 1300 °C. So... that could work.
> I was recently asked by a fairly small and young human why we don't just throw a lot of our waste into volcanoes – specifically, into the ones that have lava lakes, like Hawaii's Kilauea or the Democratic Republic of Congo's Nyiragongo.
> ...
> It's certainly a question that deserves an answer. Well, sadly, that answer probably isn’t the one you’re hoping for. As I've explained in a previous Forbes piece, lava lakes are complex things. They're extremely hot, and can melt plenty of things, that's for sure. However, they can't melt everything, and humanity has invented plenty of materials that would simply float atop the surface.
I wonder if at least some volcanos might be radioactive ? The stuff is comming from deep below & there are theories the core is being kept molten thanks to decay of radioactive elements, so I wonder if some of that might get up occasionally ?
Or is that nonsense as core is much much deeper and there is hardly any mixibg goin on between the layers?
Another one of these videos [0] popped up on reddit [1] the other day. This time with an FPV quad. I think it's a better video, though no report on the damage.
There was absolutely no heat damage. I assume it's because we were in the heat for such a short time, and the air temperature was below freezing that day. Also, the drone flies pretty fast. Regardless, I was genuinely surprised that there was no damage.
If you like the linked video, you should see how it looked a night: instagram.com/icelandaerials
I wonder how much those amateur videos helps real science. Is there anything useful for science to be extracted from that video? I personally think, that modern society with lots of powerful gadgets available and with power of the Internet provides a lot of data which waits to be processed by a competent scientists, but may be I'm overestimating it.
to me, if the scientists wanted footage, they'd rent a real helicopter and use real cameras with really nice lenses so they can hover at a nice safe and comfortable distance, yet still get the footage needed.
flying a $1k toy into high temperatures is just an attempt at a stock fotog to get some footage and some publicity. science was nowhere near on the agenda. the guy runs a stock photo company specializing in aerials.
Ahahahaa... try to get funding for that.. -sigh-
If you're trying to protect a city from an ongoing eruption you might have a chance.
So, the $1k toy is actually being trialed around the world, just with more complex instrumentation. You can get closer without risking anyone, and you can make much more frequent measurements since it's so much cheaper. The biggest problem is the wind and turbulence (since volcanoes are mountains with a heat source, and almost nobody in the field is an experienced drone pilot).
Ah, guess who makes the rules about how close you may be to an active volcano? It's usually the corresponding observatory, and they are valid for the public, not for the scientists.
And then, safe just means nobody gets hurt. The volcano will eat some instrumentation anyway at some point, probably. They often do. Plus, the sulfuric acid plume emissions will damage your gear if you get caught in it.
Something like a DJI Mavic Air (which is more like $1.5k than $1k) will happily get 5-10km range.
The risks associated with being 5km away piloting a drone and in a helicopter full of people overhead is radically different.
I mean, I wouldn't have wanted to be only 5km away from Mt St Helens when It blew its top ~40 years ago, but that one had spent 6 weeks giving off 4 and 5 magnitude earthquake warnings...
I think there's be a huge range of volcanos where it'd be risky to overfly in a helicopter risking human life, but where it'd be perfectly safe and sensible to fly drones for fun/curiosity/commercial-stock-footage/education/some-possible-eventual-science-benefit. I mean the major reason _not_ to overfly sites with drones are entirely absent, there's nobody and nothing valuable to hit and nothing for a drone battery to set fire to if you crash one on a lava field...
As far as I know there are a lot of amateur astronomers that are making meaningful contributions. This video feels more like a cool stunt that won't give new insights.
It could be interesting though, if one added a few smaller instruments. CO2 and SO2 sensors, temperature, humidity and more.. do it frequently enough, calibrate well throughout, keep good records and the scientific community would definitely be interested in the data. (If they can be convinced you did a good job with the trustworthiness.)
It might be a stunt, but it also encourages experiments which is helpful for scientists (and even in software, product development, advertising, business, etc).
How amateur astronomers do that? I've looked up for this kind of project back in ~2008 but now that I live in a big city I stopping caring. Now I might move away due to remote work, any good projects to work on?
While I don't need "true life like" video game simulations - dramatic storytelling enhancements will do - it'd be cool to pilot a mech through such terrain.
I have terrible luck with drones, and with my most recent purchase bought DJI’s refresh program. There’s an upfront cost that I can’t recall, then for up to two occasions they will replace your drone for $70 regardless of what happens. It probably runs more for the Mavic 2 than my Mavic Air 2, but for me it’s nice insurance.
I remember this guy flying a drone over a whole in a lake. Its been a long time, maybe someone else has seen it. Its like a whole in the middle of a lake, and water floats in.
So I guess it some ways its like the exact opposite of this video.
“The light under the drone was melted, and sensors were damaged from the extreme heat. He reports that the drone still works, but the vision sensor underneath no longer functions and gives constant errors during flights.“