I couldn't imagine how the headline could be accurate, and was expecting to be disappointed, but apart from the lack of legs, the mentioned robot surpassed my expectations.
A little sad that it seemingly ended up being cannibalized at a Nevada test site, but I suppose that's better than being swallowed up in a Dirac sea while having its S² Engine installed.
A little misleading: not a robot per se but more of an armed, treaded vehicle that a person can drive around. Also warrior only in the sense that it would be used to service war aircraft — not actually fight soldiers or whatever.
Cool as hell though nonetheless. Being behind a foot of leaded glass and sealed in that steel and lead cocoon would creep me out. I mean, what if the hydraulics failed and they were unable to get the hatch open?
For the nerd traveller, I highly recommend Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 in Arco, Idaho.
In addition to the breeder reactor itself, outside in the parking lot are two remaining experimental nuclear aircraft engines that the robot was to service.
You may want to take a look at the Swedish Stridsvagn 103 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stridsvagn_103): designed for a crew of 2 (a third was later added) where all crew positions can perform all operations.
Not really. Mecha is abbreviation for mechanical and generally means all types of mechanical objects. Because anime and japanese movies dominatly use the term for giant robots, western people have the misunderstanding that only those are Mecha. Enforced is this picture probably also because of the Mechs in the Battletech/Mechwarrior-Franchise, because people don't understand the difference between mech and mecha.
If the hydraulics failed there was a jack in the cabin. And you would never operate this thing alone. A massive support team would be around you to handle such emergencies. You would be towed out of the danger zone quickly.
The only bit of fiction that I have read that mentions atomic powered bombers is Charlie Stross' excellent A Colder War - where they are armed with Project Pluto style missiles and target the Soviet weakly-godlike entity i.e. (a) Cthulhu.
The tour would get you close to the NERVA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA) test stand and you could see the train tracks and the diesel switchers that would pull the reactor core in and out of the protective bunker dug into the hillside. Maybe if you looked closely, you might be able to find the chassis, assuming the arms were repurposed.
This is of course a mod of Jakub Różalski. I think it was very funny. Unfortunately Reddit did think so and banned me for life. Reddit actually banned half of Helsinki by the IP-address because of this, which was very funny also and to the point.
>Built in Detroit by a subsidiary of General Electric
Wow the USA sure built cool stuff when most of the factories were still in the USA and companies were far more focused on getting competent employees than with "diversity"
I think OP is saying corporations are not focused on innovation and manufacturing, instead busy with corporate virtue signaling while shifting manufacturing overseas. They’re faulting mostly white corporate leaders.
And white corporate politicians and lawyers and the other empty nutsacks responsible for dismantling America's ability to make anything at scale, or to be self sufficient. There's nothing wrong with diversity, it's what they used diversity and other virtue signaling to cover for.
The failings and benefits of globalization are pretty well understood at this point, but some of us are pissed off that the boomers thought it was a great idea to hand off almost all important manufacturing to an antagonistic, imperialist country whose tenets are fundamentally antithetical to basic American principles and human rights.
I am sure all minorities, specially the ones more affected by long term unemployment are happy to know that their means of subsistence are being shipped to East Asia, but at least Citigroup has a cool new PR op.
I keep wondering about MegaBots, which was unabashedly inspired by mecha fiction, but which might've then gone on to inspire more. It was founded in 2014 and debuted its first robot in 2015. Fallout 4 came out in late 2015 as well, so I assume neither knew about the other and they were both influenced by similar prior art.
It doesn't say whether this was the whole lifecycle cost or not(design, prototype, build...) but there is no way the DoD could create something like this so cheap today.
Yes, but just look at it, that's one of the coolest retro things I've ever seen. It's cool enough that it could go into a video game today. Sorry to say the cool factor legitimizes everything they could put in the headline. That's a beast. You're gonna see that in a Guillermo del Toro film soon.
I thought this article was going to be about Eagle Prime, a $2.5M robot that was designed to actually fight against a japanese one, but ended up getting auctioned off on ebay after the parent company went bankrupt[0]
The japanese robot is pretty cool too: "The vehicle can be "armed" with multiple weapons, such as a 6,000 round per minute twin BB rotary cannon, a "LOHAS" launcher which fires either water bottles[4] or possibly fireworks, and a powered humanoid hand called the "iron crow" that is capable of picking up objects, and is linked to the pilot by "what appears to be a Mattel Power Glove". The main Suidobashi website lists two other "weapons", a "Kuratas Handgun", and a "Pilebunker"."[1]
Ah yes the 1950s! When we thought we needed nuclear-powered long-range bombers that could stay in the air for months at a time as part of the deterrent. The USAF spent a good $10B 1950's dollars on this concept and funded some incredible reactors like the Aircraft Reactor Experiment [1] and the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiments [2] (which you can see yourself if you're ever driving through Idaho).
The ARE was interesting in that it was the world's first molten salt fueled reactor.
Once Kennedy shut down the propulsion program (because ICBMs had been developed and we didn't need nuclear-powered planes anymore), the reactor expertise from this program at Oak Ridge led directly to the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), which to this very day fuels all the excitement about thorium reactors and molten salt reactors.
Interestingly, China is just about finished building their version of the MSRE, called TMSR-LF1 [3], and is supposed to start testing it in a month or two.
Truly a golden age of absolutely insane nuclear projects, like Project Pluto[1], a proposed nuclear-powered ramjet that could theoretically cruise around for weeks or months before being directed to a target.
Of course, you never know whether that’s wishful thinking by the Russian and/or US military. The Russians may exaggerate how far they are in order to increase deterrence, and the Americans may exaggerate in order to get the money to get even bigger toys)
It's definitely a test reactor. You can see some program overview here [1]. This thing that's coming online is the 2020 several MW test reactor, not the 100 MW power demo.
It's too bad this wasnt explored further, there could be non-weaponized use cases for a nuclear powered aircraft that can stay in the air for days or months at a time.
81 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 106 ms ] threadMore like a heavily rad shielded vehicle with manipulators for working on atomic aircraft and reactors.
Crashed ones probably ;)
>>This costly mechanical beast had a single purpose: to service and repair the USAF’s atomic-powered aircraft
A little sad that it seemingly ended up being cannibalized at a Nevada test site, but I suppose that's better than being swallowed up in a Dirac sea while having its S² Engine installed.
Cool as hell though nonetheless. Being behind a foot of leaded glass and sealed in that steel and lead cocoon would creep me out. I mean, what if the hydraulics failed and they were unable to get the hatch open?
For the nerd traveller, I highly recommend Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 in Arco, Idaho.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I
In addition to the breeder reactor itself, outside in the parking lot are two remaining experimental nuclear aircraft engines that the robot was to service.
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/morris-s2/
That's typically what a mecha is. https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/mecha
I'm on mobile and can't look up a better picture, but look for example at the classic tank part of getter robot
https://www.ebay.com/itm/164049621190
Something like this would certainly be helpful at Fukashima, wouldn't it?
I am flabbergasted by the apparent lack of serious R&D put into solutions for contaminated sites like that.
Strongly recommended.
It's a fast read. Well worth it, too.
The tour would get you close to the NERVA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA) test stand and you could see the train tracks and the diesel switchers that would pull the reactor core in and out of the protective bunker dug into the hillside. Maybe if you looked closely, you might be able to find the chassis, assuming the arms were repurposed.
I hope the tours re-open after the pandemic!
Amazing piece of engineering, considering it was the late 50s when it was engineered.
[1] http://cyberneticzoo.com/teleoperators/1958-62-beetle-mobile...
Wow the USA sure built cool stuff when most of the factories were still in the USA and companies were far more focused on getting competent employees than with "diversity"
The failings and benefits of globalization are pretty well understood at this point, but some of us are pissed off that the boomers thought it was a great idea to hand off almost all important manufacturing to an antagonistic, imperialist country whose tenets are fundamentally antithetical to basic American principles and human rights.
It doesn't say whether this was the whole lifecycle cost or not(design, prototype, build...) but there is no way the DoD could create something like this so cheap today.
mecha - tracked
warrior - unarmed
robot - has a pilot
a true post factual headline
it's... it's a crane. a crane with two boom and some radiation shielding, which somehow gets called "armor"
There are some tracked mecha in fiction, but they are usually considered inferior to the walker equivalents.
As far as robot- you've got it there. It's basically a wheeled version of Ripley's power loader from Aliens.
And most cranes don't have manipulator arms.
http://cyberneticzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/tele-man...
The japanese robot is pretty cool too: "The vehicle can be "armed" with multiple weapons, such as a 6,000 round per minute twin BB rotary cannon, a "LOHAS" launcher which fires either water bottles[4] or possibly fireworks, and a powered humanoid hand called the "iron crow" that is capable of picking up objects, and is linked to the pilot by "what appears to be a Mattel Power Glove". The main Suidobashi website lists two other "weapons", a "Kuratas Handgun", and a "Pilebunker"."[1]
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu2iKse_GUA
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuratas
The ARE was interesting in that it was the world's first molten salt fueled reactor.
Once Kennedy shut down the propulsion program (because ICBMs had been developed and we didn't need nuclear-powered planes anymore), the reactor expertise from this program at Oak Ridge led directly to the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), which to this very day fuels all the excitement about thorium reactors and molten salt reactors.
Interestingly, China is just about finished building their version of the MSRE, called TMSR-LF1 [3], and is supposed to start testing it in a month or two.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Reactor_Experiment
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion#He...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMSR-LF1
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto
http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/09/12/in-search-of-a-big...
Edit: Fortunately the development of these devices didn't get too far advanced.
Of course, you never know whether that’s wishful thinking by the Russian and/or US military. The Russians may exaggerate how far they are in order to increase deterrence, and the Americans may exaggerate in order to get the money to get even bigger toys)
Like LAMPRE, a reactor that used molten plutonium!
https://atomic-skies.blogspot.com/2013/03/burning-metal-part...
[1] http://irfu.cea.fr/Meetings/seminaires-MSR/4_Programme%20Chi...
I'm sure there are exceptions, but nuclear aircraft does really not look like it would be one.
This price seems very low compared to other government projects.
Sadly the reality is pretty depressing
http://cyberneticzoo.com/teleoperators/1958-62-beetle-mobile...
It mentions the all important ash tray and cigarette lighter just before discussing the emergency oxygen system.
https://archive.is/GlPuu
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28283036
Anyone else find this amazing? There's no way this would be less than a $500 million project nowadays.