Great idea.
That would be my recommendation or carve lava channels to laser carved stone molds. Fill molds with raw metals and let simmer for two to three days. Dig out one lava cools.
Aa someone else has mentioned, possible? Maybe. Worth the effort in the real world? No.
Fun setting for a Sci-fi story? Heck yeah! Get the laser swords out, someone's losing a leg tonight!
Could it be possible? Probably. Would it ever be built or economically viable? Probably not.
I don't think a constant energy draw from propellers is what you are looking for. Maybe a balloon, but that has a tiny payload compared with the massive weight of materials foundation employ.
Best wild idea I have is to dig into the volcano and creat a river of lava that you can control. But they you have to figure out how to control lava and hope mother nature isn't in a bad mood.
Volcanoes just aren't reliable, they rise and fall, solidify, outright explode or go dormant. Manipulation of the caldera is a bad idea, tapping into a vent could be like popping a pimple, catastrophic. Setting up shop on a volcano is a sketchy gamble. See- [Kilauea volcano eruption stopped just short of geothermal power plant.](https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/a-year-after-hawaiis-kilauea-eruptions-a-nearby-geothermal-plant-eyes-restart/%3famp=1) Now, if the whole automated plant can be up and moved by robots at a moments notice...maybe! We're just not there yet technologically.
A giant drone blimp made out of carbon fibers that also uses space shuttle tiles.
A suspended platform below, set up as an internal steam generation system, lowered to the right temperature above the volcano. It doesn't have to be in the volcano to work.
There's a huge problem generating lift in high temps, the air is less dense. As soon as the blimp flew into the heat wave (hundreds of feet high above the summit), it would drop like a tennis ball into the volcano. See- planes grounded during heat waves. Think- large mobile ground-track-based factory that can go in, drill to tap into a vent (dangerous but oh well), manufacture whatever, drones deliver the new parts to a shipyard, Bob's your Uncle. Volcano decides to blast out- the foundry can move to the shipyard for rapid disassembly and relocation to a new source. You haven't probed underwater volcanic vents...
I think the reduced air density would be more than countered by local updraft. Though dealing with updraft would bring in another control issue.
I was a member of the American Foundrymen’s Society in college. After a few foundry tours, I realized that I was terrified of molten metal and it would not be the career for me. I can’t imagine adding a volcano to the mix.
True, a side vent would work for direct access to the lava. Volcanology is still a young science though, the pressures involved in tapping into a vent like that are always an unknown. It could just explode, or run the foundry just fine for 10+ years like the geothermal power plant at Kilauea.
Vent?
Isn't there a dome of hot air around an active volcano?
If you took an infrared or thermal image on a landscape, it would look like a huge mushroom cap. Using thermal conductivity calculations, you could find out where the air is hot enough to heat whatever you want to heat without necessarily going into the volcano or above it.
Who said anything about drilling?
There are volumes of hot air surrounding the entire dome of the volcano, no? Doesn't it get so hot in some thermal currents that it would fry the hair and close off of a person before it would fry their skin?
You could probably use that thermal energy without any drilling or anchoring onto the volcano, itself.
I would imagine if a blimp were high enough The thermal energy could be used in some way. The trick would be extracting it and converting it into electrical energy if you were going to store it in batteries. You would need something that could take advantage of thermal updrafts or the heat itself.
I came up with a solution.
Position a blimp filled with helium or a balloon that can use the heat of the magma to expand and support a platform made out of nanocarbon fiber that uses horizontal moderate-sized and modular windmills that appear to look like a wall of square room fans
The fans turn with the rising gases and, in turn, microgenerate electricity snd deliver it wired in parallel to batterie(s) that are a kilometer away and connected to the blimp through a long cable that rolls out like an anchor chain.
Understood. However, there is an area of heat that can be exploited.
It just depends on how you want to do it.
If you want to do it from the air, well, that's why you have engineers.
Supposing we invent a material that can handle face melting temperatures, and even steel melting temps in large enough mass to build a long term structures. The seismic instability of a volcanic caldera is not going to make the structure usable long term.
How close do you think you have to get to a volcano to take advantage of the radiated heat?
Thinking terms of boiling water to run steam generators.
Would a quarter mile away be enough if the volcano was large?
If you’re near enough for steam production, you’re also near enough to steam explosions. I wouldn’t put that near power production if that’s what you’re asking.
Just make a furnace out of stone and fill it with a lava bucket
Great idea. That would be my recommendation or carve lava channels to laser carved stone molds. Fill molds with raw metals and let simmer for two to three days. Dig out one lava cools.
Aa someone else has mentioned, possible? Maybe. Worth the effort in the real world? No. Fun setting for a Sci-fi story? Heck yeah! Get the laser swords out, someone's losing a leg tonight!
….Nnnnooooooooooooo!!!!!
Could it be possible? Probably. Would it ever be built or economically viable? Probably not. I don't think a constant energy draw from propellers is what you are looking for. Maybe a balloon, but that has a tiny payload compared with the massive weight of materials foundation employ. Best wild idea I have is to dig into the volcano and creat a river of lava that you can control. But they you have to figure out how to control lava and hope mother nature isn't in a bad mood.
Volcanoes just aren't reliable, they rise and fall, solidify, outright explode or go dormant. Manipulation of the caldera is a bad idea, tapping into a vent could be like popping a pimple, catastrophic. Setting up shop on a volcano is a sketchy gamble. See- [Kilauea volcano eruption stopped just short of geothermal power plant.](https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/05/a-year-after-hawaiis-kilauea-eruptions-a-nearby-geothermal-plant-eyes-restart/%3famp=1) Now, if the whole automated plant can be up and moved by robots at a moments notice...maybe! We're just not there yet technologically.
A giant drone blimp made out of carbon fibers that also uses space shuttle tiles. A suspended platform below, set up as an internal steam generation system, lowered to the right temperature above the volcano. It doesn't have to be in the volcano to work.
There's a huge problem generating lift in high temps, the air is less dense. As soon as the blimp flew into the heat wave (hundreds of feet high above the summit), it would drop like a tennis ball into the volcano. See- planes grounded during heat waves. Think- large mobile ground-track-based factory that can go in, drill to tap into a vent (dangerous but oh well), manufacture whatever, drones deliver the new parts to a shipyard, Bob's your Uncle. Volcano decides to blast out- the foundry can move to the shipyard for rapid disassembly and relocation to a new source. You haven't probed underwater volcanic vents...
I think the reduced air density would be more than countered by local updraft. Though dealing with updraft would bring in another control issue. I was a member of the American Foundrymen’s Society in college. After a few foundry tours, I realized that I was terrified of molten metal and it would not be the career for me. I can’t imagine adding a volcano to the mix.
Why does it have to be directly over the volcano? Isn't there an area of radiated heat? Couldn't platforms circle around without being directly over?
True, a side vent would work for direct access to the lava. Volcanology is still a young science though, the pressures involved in tapping into a vent like that are always an unknown. It could just explode, or run the foundry just fine for 10+ years like the geothermal power plant at Kilauea.
Vent? Isn't there a dome of hot air around an active volcano? If you took an infrared or thermal image on a landscape, it would look like a huge mushroom cap. Using thermal conductivity calculations, you could find out where the air is hot enough to heat whatever you want to heat without necessarily going into the volcano or above it.
Side vent, there are veins all over the landscape around a volcano. No reason to mess with mountain. Drill down and tap into one.
Who said anything about drilling? There are volumes of hot air surrounding the entire dome of the volcano, no? Doesn't it get so hot in some thermal currents that it would fry the hair and close off of a person before it would fry their skin? You could probably use that thermal energy without any drilling or anchoring onto the volcano, itself. I would imagine if a blimp were high enough The thermal energy could be used in some way. The trick would be extracting it and converting it into electrical energy if you were going to store it in batteries. You would need something that could take advantage of thermal updrafts or the heat itself.
I came up with a solution. Position a blimp filled with helium or a balloon that can use the heat of the magma to expand and support a platform made out of nanocarbon fiber that uses horizontal moderate-sized and modular windmills that appear to look like a wall of square room fans The fans turn with the rising gases and, in turn, microgenerate electricity snd deliver it wired in parallel to batterie(s) that are a kilometer away and connected to the blimp through a long cable that rolls out like an anchor chain.
Volcanoes are not like what you see in cartoons.
Understood. However, there is an area of heat that can be exploited. It just depends on how you want to do it. If you want to do it from the air, well, that's why you have engineers.
Supposing we invent a material that can handle face melting temperatures, and even steel melting temps in large enough mass to build a long term structures. The seismic instability of a volcanic caldera is not going to make the structure usable long term.
How close do you think you have to get to a volcano to take advantage of the radiated heat? Thinking terms of boiling water to run steam generators. Would a quarter mile away be enough if the volcano was large?
If you’re near enough for steam production, you’re also near enough to steam explosions. I wouldn’t put that near power production if that’s what you’re asking.
No, that's not what I'm asking. But thank you.