What is Digg?119 Comments
- Klowner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+27This will be of great use when we conquer Arrakis.
- FJR1300, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23But will ARPA pay to have someone build a droid that speaks the binary language of those 'vaporators?
Hopefully, they won't try to just buy one off some traveling salesman, 'cause those droids are usually suffering from bad motivators. - nfulton, on 10/12/2007, -5/+28We should give some of these to the Iraqi people . . . I hear they'd like fresh water too, and most of their water purification plants are offline.
- obrysii, on 10/12/2007, -2/+24Just like Moisture Vaporators from Star Wars.
- AdverseEntropy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23This could be potentially very useful, but I'm no scientist. Wouldn't large-scale applications of such a technology compromise the humidity levels in the air?
This would be very large scale, of course. But it's not entirely impossible to envision.
Edit: My bad, I missed a part of the article that explains it. - UnknownCzar, on 10/12/2007, -13/+30hmm...
but don't we already have these? they are called dehumidifiers, cost round 20-50 bucks.. - Comatose51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17@neuroticus: That maybe be true in peace time but the cost of trucking water goes up dramatically when your convoy is constantly under attack by insurgents.
- aegis9975, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19So essentially a massive dehumidifier . . .
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+16Are they doing all of this even after the DARPA Chief Donald Anderson died?
I wonder if they can find a way to make a water based Metal Gear - MemeWarrior, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13But I was going to go to Toche Station to pick up some power converters!
- standalonematt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13Just make sure the droid speaks Bocce.
- rickcarson, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16More to the point, most of their water purification plants have had bombs dropped on them.
And for those that haven't electricity would be a good thing, except that the power plants have also had bombs dropped on them.
Not to worry, if your child gets severe dehydration or poisoning from bad water you can just take them to the hosp... oh no wait, that has been bombed as well.
Here's a hint as to why the Iraqis might not be so happy to see the Americans as the Americans would like them to be.
Note to self: attacking a country and destroying its civilian infrastructure, then embargoing medicine and food against it for a decade, and then invading and having a second go at its civilian infrastructure does not lead to an increase in popularity with the common people. Who'd have thought? - WileEPeyote, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@neuroticus
You every carried a gallon of water; it is not light. Now imagine the amount of energy required to purify, transport and store enough water to hydrate 100,000 soldiers. When I was in the military we were told to drink half a gallon of water a day when in the heat. Im not sure what is recommended in the dry heat of the desert as we were in Georgia, so I'll go with the half gallon. That is 50,000 gallons of water A DAY. That is around 1.5 million gallons of water per month to treat, transport and store. - ahknight, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11As clean as the water you breathe...
- Flawless, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Stillsuits, FTW!
(Are Dune references too obscure?) - andreo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8They will trickle down to them.
Get it? Water... Trickle down...
/I've got nothing
//please tip your wait staff - Matteos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You can waste time with your friends when your chores are done. Now come on, get to it!
- Klowner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Muad'Dib liked your comment
- rickcarson, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Or even Dune by Frank Herbert
- ImaBrowncoat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Sounds like it could have been an off shoot of Reagan's "Star Wars" program.
- baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7RE: "Only problem is it’ll set you back a cool $500,000"
digg it again when i can buy one for a few hundred dollars... - maehem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Need to send a device like this to Mars to see if and how much water could be collected from the thin atmosphere.
- Oceas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Or... Star Wars "Moisture Vaporators" used on Tatooine by moisture farmers.
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Moisture_farmer - dwang1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@WileEPeyote
I'm not sure why they told you to drink only a half-gallon of water... That's the recommended intake for a normal person without much physical activity. I'd wager that the soldiers are required to drink a gallon or more each day when operating in those excruciating temperatures. - starline, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8I miss LOST too.
- aviazn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@rm999
It's not just a dehumidifier; in the article, they explain that the technology operates independent of the humidity in the air. - dracostimpy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+71. Build something only the US military can afford.
2. ?????
3. Profit! - dupswapdrop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ok boys once we get this Iraq thing right it's on to DUNE and then the empire!
- sparkysko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You can use a solar still for the same purpose, probably cheaper too, and doesn't require electricity like this thing does. Best part is, you can pee into it, and distill that to produce even more water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_still - hobbers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is not to be confused with cloud seeding that was used during Vietnam to make enemy trails less passable to the supply chains.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Whoever starts using this is going to have to wait a year to go to the academy. But the good news is they'll be able to hang out at Toshi Station wasting time with their friends.
- rm999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3aviazn
That is not true, their website claims it won't work below 15% humidity. It IS a dehumidifier - all that means is that it is extracting water from the air. My point was that it is not magic, the water is coming from somewhere. - 0crabby0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Just before Hurricane Ivan we made maps of all of the swimming pools in our neighborhood, just in case we wouldn't have usable water after the storm.
Problem was - swimming pool water gets rancid in after 3 or 4 days(so it starts to smell).
We had our backpack water filters, but they were hard as hell to use for pumping 4 to 5 gallons a day.
Couldn't use tap water until the city said it was okay for use(for almost a week).
The above process would be nice if it were electrically or mechanically self sustaining. Maybe if it also incorporated some solar sterling technology?
http://pesn.com/2005/08/11/9600147_Edison_Stirling_largest_solar - anonym41414, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Yes, God forbid we should, you know, drink.
If you're not a voluntary extinctionist, you're a hypocrite. - jerryparid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow English please; due to the sheer size of the Earth's atmosphere; I can confidently say that this process can go indefinitely without replenishment because of the law of conservation of matter, mass, and energy. Nothing is really lost. The water you drink will come out through perspiration and urine, which in turn goes back into the atmosphere.
- glucoseboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2'Aliens'
...........We're in the pipe, five by five........ - synorgy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Its not a giant dehumidifier - Dehumidifiers require that large amounts of water be in the air to generate water. This thing uses reverse osmosis, and is quite a discovery.
- aviazn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@rm999
Point taken, it's not magic, it's technology, and it *is* a dehumidifer, in that it is extracting water from the air, but it is nothing like the device that you have in your home. Instead of drawing hot air over a cold coil to condense the moisture, this uses a chemical process similar to the way salt behaves to extract the water from the air, allowing it to operate in drier conditions. - fsnuffer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh my god. Better not tell Al Gore about this. This could lead to Global De-humidification!!!!!
- AZTriGuy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7For a second there, I thought it said "DHARMA"
- Saiyanz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I need to say this even at the risk of sounding like an environmentalist. We already got problems with sucking the ground dry of water (seen especially in southasia where farmers depend on underground water) do we really need to create a new problem by sucking the air clean of water?? I don't know im just a skeptical, this sounds too good to be true....there just has to be some crazy draw back. SOY-LENT GREEN oh...sorry
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Do you drink 50 gallons a day? No? then STFU
- Johnpaine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why cant plants like that be setup in 3ed world countries? instead the technology is used to support US troops in Iraq.
- Bob042, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"“Think of the Dead Sea, where nothing grows around it because the salt dehydrates everything. It’s kind of like that.”"
Great, they'll have no toxic byproducts, but nothing will be able to grow near them. Although, I'm sure its a much much smaller scale. - Inkling, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2But you don't do that with these kinds of devices. You patent them to protect them, not hope people don't reverse engineer it. This story sounds like a fraud. Anyone have a link to a reputable site that corroborates this story?
- jake13jake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What happens?
1. Individual houses have their own.
2. Cities buy lots of these.
3. Something else... - freakboy2k, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2He implies they are treating it like a trade secret, which don't get patented. Like KFC, Coke, etc. None of their recipes are patented, so they can retain the sole rights to it as long as they can keep it a secret. However patents run out, so eventually people would be able to make knock-offs from their patent.
- anonym41414, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Probably would, yes, if Iran had any deserts to speak of. The bulk of the country is mountains and high plains.
But that's okay. Don't worry about it. You're probably under the impression that the Iranians are Arabs, too, or that Iran is in the Middle East. Don't sweat that either. It doesn't matter at all. - anonym41414, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I gather you don't know what the word "evaporation" means. I think you were trying to say condensation, but that's not right either in this context.
- firsttube, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Perhaps it's think air they're talking about, Air rampant with water! Dammit, I'm flaccid with rage!
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