A sign on the climb from Salem, Oregon to the Redmond\/Bend area indicates that no gas or services exist for the next 52 miles.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth heeding, since the route goes over mountain passes, and in winter can require tire chains and sometimes long passages behind a snow plow.\u00a0 Range anxiety happens even for those of us still plugging along in fossil-fueled vehicles.<\/p>\n
One of the ostensible advantages of Solar Impulse\u2019s ability to charge itself, is that it has an endless supply of solar fuel and its batteries can make it through the night \u2013 depending on the relative lengths of day and night.\u00a0 Making the longest flight of the round-the-world trip at high latitudes and during summer months was well planned, subject only to obstacles presented by weather.\u00a0 Even those impediments were handled brilliantly by the team\u2019s meteorologists and mission director.<\/p>\n
What couldn\u2019t be foreseen and must have caused moments when Andre\u2019 Borschberg\u2019s discipline, yoga and powers of meditation were put to the extreme test, was the overheating of some of the batteries, reducing their performance and jeopardizing the mission \u2013 and Borschberg.<\/p>\n
Since the first signs of trouble occurred on the first climb from Nagoya, Japan, that meant each day\u2019s climb to 28,000 feet or more was a tenuous effort, many eyes doubtless scanning the instruments showing temperature and charge.\u00a0 This was a courageous press onwards.<\/p>\n