{"id":31898,"date":"2024-11-08T17:27:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T11:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=31898"},"modified":"2024-11-08T17:27:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T11:57:55","slug":"airships-for-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/08-11-2024\/airships-for-climate-change","title":{"rendered":"Airships for Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Climate change is bringing back the idea of airships as viable alternatives for transportation and environmental observation.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are Airships?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Airships are lighter-than-air aircraft <\/strong>that are lifted by gas with a density lower than atmospheric gasses.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This principle also operates in <strong>helium balloons.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The structure<\/strong> of an airship often includes an envelope (or balloon) filled with the lifting gas and a <strong>gondola or cabin<\/strong> where the crew, passengers, or cargo are housed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Early airships used <strong>hydrogen<\/strong> as the lifting gas, since it was cheap and the lightest existing gas. But hydrogen was also extremely flammable.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Most <strong>modern airships use helium<\/strong>, which is non-combustible.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Challenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Buoyancy Management:<\/strong> A major hurdle for airships as cargo vehicles is managing buoyancy changes when loading or unloading freight.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Speed:<\/strong> Airships are considerably slower than airplanes, which limits their use for time-sensitive transportation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Helium Scarcity:<\/strong> Helium is a non-renewable resource primarily obtained from natural gas extraction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Need for Airships in Modern Times<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Low Emissions: <\/strong>Airships offer an inherently eco-friendly mode of transport as they do not burn fossil fuels for lift.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Freight Efficiency:<\/strong> With a superior lift-to-drag ratio, airships can transport large amounts of cargo with significantly less fuel, offering a sustainable alternative to fuel-guzzling jets\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Remote Accessibility:<\/strong> Airships have the unique ability to access remote areas without requiring extensive infrastructure, such as runways or roads.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/how-climate-change-is-bringing-back-the-idea-of-airships-9658936\/lite\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>IE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Climate change is bringing back the idea of airships as viable alternatives for transportation and environmental observation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31899,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31898\/revisions\/31899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}