That's pretty cool. I hope it works and isn't just another thing that won't leave the lab/drawing board.

Is that a Korean concept? It's a good one, but it is obvious that English is not the poster maker's first language.

That's a pretty cool concept. But are the bombs themselves biodegradable like the capsules? I mean, it's cool that they could remotely seed areas, but if they're also littering that area with the bomb casings, it kind of defeats the purpose. I'd love to see this realized, though!

man i hope this works too, if it does then it will finally mean the end of those useless deserts just sitting out there, and being useless lol

Discovery Channel did it.
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/project-earth/highlights/highlights.html

discovery did do this, most of the seeds didn't survive impact, and none of the ones that did germinated. While I like the idea, we haven't figured out how to beat delta V yet.

The Junk Pirates Approve of Seed Bombs.

Why not use mashinguns,
if my memory serves me right, book "Battlefield earth " had the concept of seeding a forest by aerial bombardement with high caliber mashingun .

How about instead of spending thousands/millions of dollars on "bombs " to seed the planet... how about we pay a shit load of people to walk the deforest areas and plant the seeds. .. we'd get exercise and we'd be helping the planet. ..

So Do It! Don't let the feds stop you either. Go for it!!
Get one of those "farm dusters" any old plane that works and just start dropping bombs!

"discovery did do this, most of the seeds didn't survive impact, and none of the ones that did germinated. While I like the idea, we haven't figured out how to beat delta V yet."

I remember watching that show on the discovery channel, but remember that they were using a far more crude method then this. The containers they used were little more then Sacks that held the seeds, and depending on how they make those pill shaped capsules, the seeds may have a better chance at survival.

What might be useful as a "pre-bombardment" phase is to have water-bombers drop that green stuff they use after construction related landscaping damage in cities or forestry work. It is a wood fiber pulp which holds moister and nutrients with grass seeds to stabilize the surface and keeping the seeds from blowing away.

This seed bombardment would only work in areas which actually get some rain in the year but have it wash away too quickly. There are many areas like that but the middle of the Sahara or Arabian deserts might be out of luck.

At the southern edge of the Sahara where they get some rain, there are programs to dig pits, fill them with mulch and cover them with rocks to give rain from flash floods somewhere to stay instead of running off into wadis. Desert trees are planted around them which use the water while shading the pits and further reducing evaporation.

It'll be great, as long as they can (a) guarantee the little flowerpots all land right-side-up and don't fall over and (b) can figure out how to make something besides sawgrass, saguaro, etc., can grow in desert playa soil. (Not to mention the problem of growing anything in actual sand-dune deserts, like about half of North Africa.) until they get those little problems worked out, I have to file this one under "Inspector Gadget".

cheers

eon

Although I love the technology, I agree 100% with Joe. One of the underlying forces driving deforestation (though certainly not the only one) is poverty in the setting of underemployment. So rather than spending large amounts of money developing and implementing this (admittedly impressive) system, hire the unemployed locals to do the planting.

Have any of you ever made those little paper "helicopters"? Essentially a long rectangle of paper sliced in half, half way up and the tabs folded at right angles....no matter how you threw it it would right itself if it was weighted and the decent would be fairly controlled/slowed down...that would be perfect for these canisters if impact destruction is a concern...

In regards to dropping these in the desert...well these plants are for areas that were deforested...so they used to have the plants and the climate to support them so this idea would definitely work well in those locations.

I'm not sure you are all reading this. The concept has to do with the plant having everything they need in the capsule to get a good hold on life. The capsule is like a little biosphere for each little plant, that melts away quicker as the plant produces moisture and heat, and of coarse the roots growing through the base of the capsule. This is much better than what they didn't on the discovery channel project earth, but the concept they were working with is very similar to this and wouldn't surprise me if some of those people has something to do with this on some level.

why do these seed capsules have to be encased in a stylish bomb like shell? Why cant a mass drop occur? the capsules seem weighted enough to drive their own descent at a reasonable speed enough to dig them into the soil/sand. This mass drop system could save much room and severely simplify the design and payload efficiency.

Ranger Cary Said
" why do these seed capsules have to be encased in a stylish bomb like shell? Why cant a mass drop occur? the capsules seem weighted enough to drive their own descent at a reasonable speed enough to dig them into the soil/sand. This mass drop system could save much room and severely simplify the design and payload efficiency. "

I think the problem with a mass drop would be the capsules would not get the spred out enought from each other and pretty much choke each other out ones they started to grow. You may get one land all by itself and then in another spot you will have 20 or more inches away from each other.

If these cluster bombs work like the military version then each capsule will pretty much land the same amount of space apart from each other and ensure that each plant will not be draining another plant of food and water after the capsule is gone.

And i also agree that hiring people to do this by hand is a great idea for some areas but for areas that may not be as safe this would work perfect.. Like use this method to seed a hillside to stop future land/mudd slides..

The descovery channel show was cool but they were using helicopters, and i think i seen one where they used balloons too (maybe was the same show) but it did not give them the correct spred. Clusterbombs and By Hand is the way to go with this i think :) I really hope they do use this idea, it's great.

The desert is a desert because vegitation can't survive there, not because the seeds can't get there.

Plant a seed in the desert,keep it protected until it sprouts, and then abandon it and it will die.

Silly idea.