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Great idea. You just know that it'll happen someday, but it was thought up years ago. |
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The cartoon shows an idea that wouldn't work. I'm serious about this idea, and it of course will not look at all like a single web. The idea is to have a "cloud like" canopy, emitted from a cansister. |
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Methinks your cannister will be as large and carry enough substance under pressure (or more) as an equivalent hydrogen/helium cannister and balloon, and of course, let us not forget tensile strength. It is probably easy to eject enough surface area to slow you down *but* you have to remain tethered, else there is not much point. Any chain is as strong as its weakest link. |
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Even some large spiders can fly (balloon)
They do this by spinning a long thread. This effectively increases there surface area without increasing there weight. Then they need an updraught to get air born.
To do this for a human being would need; a very large, permeable, light weight parachute. |
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I once saw a spider spin a long string of web out in a tight, expanding spiral. It produced about 10-15 inches and then the spider sailed away on a light breeze.
Maybe the artificial web spinner could be engineered to do something like this. |
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Spider man spins his own parachute occasionally. Does that count as baked in fiction? |
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No. His web looks like a regular parachute [see linky],
and I'm talking about a "cloud" of ultra thin thread,
like real spiders do. |
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Fair enough, [-ra]. Methinks you'll need some way to keep the threads separate - otherwise they'll all bunch up and kill you. Perhaps they could be attached to a large grid (but that would be even heavier than an ordinary parachute), or given a large electrical charge. |
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If there was a really long piece of mylar tape, ignoring breaking strain, how long would it need to be to slow your decent to a survivable velocity? |
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What if the mylar tape had a 'mandelbrot' surface to
dramatically increase its surface area without significantly
increasing its volume? How much added resistance would
this create? |
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what did you mean
when you wrote whag
did you mean what?
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//I suppose creating an artificial "spiderweb" type
of material will be much lighter than carying a
parachute/glider.// |
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And yet why suppose this? I doubt that it is true.
For very small masses and structures, air's
viscosity becomes significant and can be used
effectively. For larger masses and structures, this
is less true and alternative solutions are needed. |
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A ram-air canopy weighs perhaps 5 pounds (aside
from the pack, the 3-ring release, the harness and
all the other paraphernalia, which you'll need
anyway), yet can land a 200 pound person quite
safely (and is also flyable and steerable - which is
important). This is probably a better weight ratio
than spiderlings' silk 'balloons', and way, way
better than the ratio you'd get with a larger
version of the same. |
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Basically, if spiders looked at parachutes, they'd
be saying "wow! why didn't we think of that?". [-]
for uncritical supposition, [+] for imagery. Net [] |
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Yes, I meant 'what.' Typo. Fixed. |
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[Alterother]
made a typo.
Now, he's fixed it. |
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It happens. I'll be the first to agmit it. |
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