Ice Privateers of the Arctic .

Ice Privateers of the Arctic.

Andre Willers

8 May 2013

Privateers only ! This is high risk .

Synopsis :

Cheap water quickly .

 

Discussion :

1.Using old jet engines and cheap gas , a disc of pack ice 1 000 m in diameter and 30 m thick (worth about $100 million) can be easily and quickly transported using hovercraft principles .

 

2.Park the jet engines(at least five for redundancy) in the center of the disk . The exhaust points downward . The hot gases blow through the ice and form the hover layer underneath .

Like all hovercraft , the bigger the better .

3.Fracture the outer rim with small , separated explosive charges . Then tear along the dotted line .

 

3.Steering ? What is that ?

Vary pressures .

The whole mass is in a controlled fall . Expect about 40 km/h for mass of 100 million tons .

 

4.Melting : Surprisingly little . Like fuel use . The ratio of circumference(where heat and air escapes) to area is 2(pi)r/(pi)r^2 = 2/r . This 1/500 in metric units here .

At 40 km/h , 1000 km will take 25 hours .

 

5. I expect something like 1/9 would have melted , leaving about 90 million tonnes of water worth $90 m .

 

6.Fuel consumption : only the outer 10 meters of the ice disk is under continuous accellaration .  This gives about the fuel consumption of 1.5 Boeing 747’s .

Cost would be about $1 million .

7.Cost of engines : Surprise ! These can be 3D printed See http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/11/additive-manufacturing .

But a privateer will just buy a lot of them at scrap prices . They need only last 30 hours . And many ensures redundancy . 5 Engines second hand engines should cost about $300 000

8. So , for an outlay of about $1,3 m , our privateer will make at least $90 m .

9.Ports : that will be needed beforehand .

10. Right-of-way : nobody is going to argue with a floating iceberg . Though notification would be nice .

11. Ice Letters  of Marque

Water starved states will issue Ice Letters of Marque , especially since most of the pack ice on the planet is not in national territories .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque

“Cruising for prizes with a letter of marque was considered an honorable calling combining patriotism and profit,”

 

12.Real pirates will try to hijack these valuable cargoes . This will then involve outfits like "Blackriver", "Red River", "Blackthorne", and "Starkwood" in self-defence .

 

13. Reminiscent of Kuttner’s “Free Companies” of Venus . See http://www.sfsite.com/01b/fu120.htm

 

14. Of course , everything would be much simpler if they simply desalinated seawater . But would it be cheaper ?

 

Besides , it would not nearly be as much fun .

 

“Beware of low-flying icebergs !”

 

Andre

 

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