Feasibility of a Dune Ornithopter

Re:Feasibility of a Dune Ornithopter by cgriswald on Saturday October 23, 2021 @12:03PM (#28969730)

All these conversations are lacking a discussion about the atmosphere on Arrakis. We have only hints about the composition and density of the atmosphere. We can assume that the atmosphere isn't toxic and contains quantities of oxygen and carbon dioxide that make breathing both possible and comfortable. We can be sure it doesn't crush humans or explode their lungs.

We also don't know the gravity of the planet. It might be 1.2g or 0.85g.

So we don't know how much lift is generated per stroke, how much lift is required, or what the speed of sound actually is on the planet.

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Re:Feasibility of a Dune Ornithopter by philipswood on Saturday October 23, 2021 @02:48PM (#28971177)

Ornithopters seem to be an Imperium-wide vehicle and not a Arrakis-only device which blunts the urgency of these questions and variances.

To be used on many different imperium planets seem to imply that it operates across an acceptable range of gravities and pressures, etc.

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Re:Feasibility of a Dune Ornithopter by cgriswald on Saturday October 23, 2021 @06:56PM (#28973186)

Ornithopter is a type of vehicle. It's unlikely any specific vehicle of the type would be generic enough to operate across the variety of planets that likely exist within the Imperium without modification to the design.

This particular branch of the discussion was focusing specifically on the feasibility of the 'dragonfly' ornithopters operating on Arrakis as represented in the new film.

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