Solar-powered boat to make historical journey across the Atlantic
Solar-powered boat to make historical journey across the Atlantic
Singapore-based engineers Isaac Penny and Christopher Sam Soon may soon find their names in the record books for sending Solar Voyager, the world's first solar-powered, fully self-driving, unmanned boat across the Atlantic.
Custom designed and built by both engineers in their spare time over four years at a robotic surgery startup in Singapore, Solar Voyager is powered by a 280W array of solar panels and batteries for running at night. It is capable of traveling up to 5km/h. A mounted GoPro will record still images and videos of its historic journey.
Solar Voyager will be following pre-programmed GPS waypoints along its journey to Lisbon, Portugal. It will send back live information on its status (e.g. position, heading, speed, solar powered generated) and environment via satellite every 15 minutes. You also can track its journey on this website. The entire journey is expected to be completed in four months depending on weather conditions.