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The Army printed a grenade launcher

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, politics, science, weapons  4 Responses »
Mar 102017
 

RAMBO’S Premiere

RAMBO (Rapid Additively Manufactured Ballistics Ordnance) is a 40mm grenade launcher built *almost* entirely from 3d-printed metal parts. Looks like this:

RAMBO’S Premiere

On the one hand… meh. A grenade launcher is a relatively low-performance device, certainly compared to the 1911 that was 3d printed a few years ago. The level of precision and the pressures involved are less than for a standard firearm.

On the other hand… it’s only been a few years since the idea of actually printing a metal object, never mind a firearm, was pure sci-fi.

Even the ammunition was 3d printed. the launcher was fired 15 times, with no signs of damage or degradation.

The barrel and receiver took about 70 hours to print and required around five hours of post-process machining.

The printing and post-processing time may well exceed the time needed to conventionally machine the same p[arts, but in time this will improve. And it *may* be less labor intensive… instead of someone marshaling a chunk of metal through the CNC milling process, the printer *may* require no more than to enter the data, hit “print,” then step out for a couple dozen beers. If the printer system can be reduced in size, increased in speed and reliability, and properly packaged, I can see the Army putting these printers into small standard shipping containers along with an appropriate generator. The containers could be transported to bases near the combat zone to print out weapons on demand. This might be a few decades off before it’s truly practical, but then it might be shipped to our boys fighting on the beaches of the Belgian Caliphate in only a few years. Hard to predict.

What’s not hard to predict: that some people will promptly lose their mind at the idea of firearms that can be manufactured without the need for a factory… or for a federal registry. And so, from this article on the subject we get:

You might also worry that this technology could find its way into the wrong hands. It was scary enough when libertarian gun nuts were printing one-shot pistols in their garages. Imagine a wannabe terrorist 3-printing a damn grenade launcher in his basement.

Oooh, scary libertarians with guns!

The advantage of 3d printing firearms is in rapidly stamping out new designs. But if your goal isn’t to try out something new, but rather to just get something that works… a terrorist has a whole lot of far cheaper options available.

 

 Posted by at 12:39 am

Pan is a funky moon

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, photography, science, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Mar 092017
 

Now that the Cassini space probe is doing death-defying dives past the Saturnian ring system, it’s getting some close-up views of the dinky lil’ moon that inhabit the rings . One such moon (within the Enke gap) is Pan, which exhibits a very unusual feature… it’s own little ring system. In the case of Pan, the rings are accreted directly onto the surface, forming a pronounced equatorial ridge running all the way around the little (34.4×31.4×20.8 km) world. The rings are far thinner than most people understand… perhaps just a few meters. So unless the moon tumbles – and it appears that Pan does not – the moon will scoop up bits of dust on a single thin plane.

Pan is not alone… the moon Atlas shows the same structure.

 Posted by at 11:52 pm

Insert angry post title HERE

 AARRRGH, blather, cats, Crazy, critters, Gah., news, ಠ_ಠ  13 Responses »
Mar 092017
 

UPDATE:

Sage the cat died this afternoon.

——-

This led off the local nightly news tonight.

Clearfield family finds beloved cat shaved, beaten

There are photos that will ruin your mood and, if you’re at all like me, make you want to set up a second reward. The first rewards is $5000 for anyone who can provide tips that lead to an arrest. But I kinda want a second reward set up for *after* the suspect is found, arrested, tried and convicted.

Chances are good that this was done by a kid. If so, I expect to see family members yammering on about “he’s a good kid” or some such factually indefensible rubbish.  Whether perpetrated by a kid or an adult, though, society doesn’t need him among us. If someone can provide a good, valid reason why a jail term followed by deportation to Somalia isn’t a proper response for such behavior, I’d like to read it.

The Humane Society of Northern Utah is paying the vet bills. As of the news report, it was far from clear that Sage the cat would survive. I certainly hope he does… partially just on general principles, partially because this cat, after being tortured and broken and blinded, managed to find his way home and crawl in through the dog door.

www.humanesocietyofnorthernutah.com

 

 Posted by at 3:36 am

In honor of International Womens Day..

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, science, youtube, YouTubers worth watching, ಠ_ಠ  5 Responses »
Mar 082017
 

… here are two Thunderf00t videos discussing recent projects that have consumed lots of money but which were based on bad science, bad math and bad engineering.

The self-filling water bottle remains a stumper to me. The basic idea is quite simple: a solar powered dehumidifier. Not exactly staggeringly new technology. Yet, the math behind the concept is available and accessible for anyone to do… and the math shows that the idea is *monumentally* impractical. And still people shovel truckloads of cash at these efforts.

 

 

 Posted by at 5:12 pm

Bell Helicopter FCX-001

 aircraft, art, blather, Hmm..., news, projects, science fiction, youtube  2 Responses »
Mar 072017
 

Bell has unveiled a very sci-fi mockup of a “concept helicopter.” It features some unusual things:

A hybrid propulsion system

Variable geometry rotor tips

Lots and lots of glass

Only a single pilots seat

No physical control.

It’s that last one that’ll probably cause the most consternation. The pilot is meant to wear augmented reality goggles/visor/glasses/whatever; this will place data screens in front of him in an arrangement the pilot prefers. Control will still be manual, but the choppers onboard AI will presumably be able to track the pilots hands as he manipulates phantom controls.

Sure, it sounds cool, but two issues immediately present themselves:

1: Computer goes goofy. Malware, hacking, power surge, EMP, whatever… this thing seems like a deathtrap if the computer goes down.

2: Phantom controls that exist solely in the computers imagination and the pilots visor… sure, that sounds cool, and is certainly a common enough trope in sci-fi. Witness anytime Tony Stark wants to design anything, for instance. But in reality, your hands and arms get tired. You actually rest on the steering wheel or the yoke or the collective. Additionally, pilots really like to get direct feedback, which seems as yet beyond the ability to reproduce virtually. More, with every bump or jolt, the pilots hands will flail around. In a conventional helicopter, the pilots hands will be constrained by the controls they are gripping. In this one… nothing.

I would suggest a compromise: a set of *basic* physical instruments. Just what the pilot needs to safely fly the chopper. And I’d damn sure stick with physical controls. But… keep the augmented reality for the *secondary* instruments. Navigation, radio, air conditioning, whisper mode, thermal vision, fire rearward missiles… that can be via virtual reality. Instrument panels that are called up with a voice command, and recede when not in use.

Bell Helicopter unveils futuristic FCX-001 concept aircraft

 

 

Not at all related:

 

 Posted by at 1:20 pm

Missed it by *that* much

 aircraft, art, photography  6 Responses »
Mar 072017
 

Last evening while out photographing a snowstorm that blew by (panoramas to follow), I happened to see a jetliner heading towards the moon. I got the standard lens swapped out for the telephoto lens just in time to not quite catch the jetliner not quite crossing in front of the moon. Pretty sure it’s a 787. Anybody recognize the livery?

 Posted by at 12:32 pm

Everybody say “awww…”

 awesomeness, cats, Hmm..., photography  2 Responses »
Mar 072017
 

Buttons is by far my friendliest cat. Friendliest cat I’ve ever known, in fact. Part of his friendliness is expressed in his sleep preference… right next to my head, purring like a machine. He’d sleep *on* my head if he though he could.

One of the more unusual things he does, though, is to sleep “hand in hand” with me. *Many’s* the time I’ve woken up to find him sleeping next to me with a paw outstretched, resting on my palm. Of course the circumstances of this are such that it doesn’t exactly lend itself to photography… as soon as I move he withdraws the paw. So that explains the craptacular quality of these cameraphone shots taken a few days ago.

I have n particularly good explanation for why he does that apart from “he does it because he wants to.”

 Posted by at 12:27 pm
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