About a decade ago, Rob Hovsapian bought a sailboat. He named it V’ger.
For non-Trekkies, V’ger was a probe sent into space by 20th century Earthlings in the first Star Trek movie. The probe’s task was to collect as much knowledge as possible. And it does. After amassing two centuries’ worth of data, the probe becomes a sentient being and changes its name from Voyager 6 to V’ger.
Hovsapian, a mechanical engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), donated his sailboat to the sailing club at his alma mater, Florida State University. But he will not entirely lose V’ger — at least not in spirit.
At NREL, he is building another massive, knowledge-gobbling machine, one that could help solve future crises — maybe not Star-Trek-level Earth-ending crises, but close….
Read the full article originally published at cleantechnica.com.