make them belong to the community even more.’ The
aim of all this sharing is to grow the knowledge base of
what solar-powered, free-floating technology can do.
Back in Brandenburg, we finally locate the Aerocene
aeronauts, camped lakeside down a long forest track in
a place where Google Maps remains obstinately offline.
Their tensile tree tents are strung between the pine
trees, looking like spiderwebs in the morning sun.
People are swimming and breakfasting, and some are
fiddling with various pieces of equipment. Soon, the
aerosolar balloons are set up and a couple of canoes
are pulled up on the little beach, ready to tow them
out into the lake for the launch. But this launch site
proved unsuitable. The 25 or so participants on site
trek back through the forest to the giant public beach
on the other side of the lake. About three hours later
we are all sitting next to a boat hire shop, eating
lunch and drinking cold beer. Somebody is playing
a guitar. It looks for all the world like a scene from
Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
All that’s missing are the beanie hats.
The test launch we are all here to participate in is
for ‘a solar hybrid sculpture designed to fly night and
day around the world, carried by a helium carrier’,
explains Erik Vogler, another Aerocene community
member. The aim is to study how the sculpture would
rise during the day and fall by night, as its air-filledinterior swells and shrinks with the temperature. (^) »
The Explorer takes about eight minutes on average to inflate, using only the kinetic energy
created by running around; and about ten minutes to take off
Tomás Saraceno: Aerocene