New Mars Forums

Wim

Member

From: Belgium (Antwerp)

Registered: 2003-11-15

Posts: 58

Website

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

This sound very much like the movie  The Matrix.

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Dit anibodie sea my englich somwere ?

DanielCook

Member

From: Atlanta, GA

Registered: 2004-02-19

Posts: 90

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

I just noticed [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/11/garden/11ROBO.html]this article in the NYTimes about a guy trying to automate construction.

I wonder if this could be leveraged for remote construction of infrastructure on Mars?

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-- memento mori

Yang Liwei Rocket

Member

Registered: 2004-03-03

Posts: 993

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

Robotic builders, mechanised diggers, our little construction workers will be busy working away on our planet build up the martian village, so that NASa can put a manned Mars mission
into action.

NASA and the ESA have been looking at robotics based on animals like spider - bots and mechanized ants for some time now. It is such a good thing to invest in, plus there will be great returns and spin-offs in our own home industries. Imgine how something like this could improve constructions or fast motor-engine making in the US. It is something that NASA must back, plus having robotics construct a base is good, it will greatly reduce the risks for a manned mission

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'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

Yang Liwei Rocket, could you give some info from where you got that first pic? I'd much appreciate it!

Yang Liwei Rocket

Member

Registered: 2004-03-03

Posts: 993

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

From the space leaders in NASA

[http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/technology]http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/technology

( The link isn't working now for some reason )

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'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

DanielCook, nice article for showing us the state-of-the art, but as usual with thiss stuff, the 'early adopters' are a bunch of...

Although still in an early phase, the technology has caught the eye of the Los Angeles architect Greg Lynn, one of the earliest proponents of computer-driven three-dimensional design, also called blobitecture. Mr. Lynn predicts that such robots could radically alter the way architects work. "Gaud? would have loved these machines," he said, referring to the Art Nouveau surrealist whose curvilinear facades and off-kilter turrets put Barcelona on the architectural map. "Everything Gaud? did you could do with this technology. I'm convinced this will allow you to make beautiful, innovative and as yet unimagined kinds of houses."

Nonsense. The stuff Gaudi designed got built by humans, so it has been possible to do this kind of architecture since then. No computers-driven builders needed for that, BUT an architect with an original HUMAN mind!

Furthermore, if Gaudi lived today, they'd never let him build anything, thanks to computers!
His stuff would be (WRONGLY) marked as too costly, or too risky because too complex to simulate (stress etc calculations) and people would surely want to do that now. They do it with skyscrapers etc...  Instead of an intuitional genious, he'd be marked as a lunatic...

BTW i'm a tech freak, a 'devotee' to Kurzweill, for instance... but some people just draw wrong conclusions, too eager to invent a new future... Or a new market (evil grin)

Blobitechture, hah!

Josh Cryer

Moderator

Registered: 2001-09-29

Posts: 3,830

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

Hey, Gaudi's stuff looks absolutely beautiful... not sure how it's done, but the underlying structure has to be similar to other buildings, no? If not, it is more marvelous than I can imagine, but it does indeed look like it's built with stucko finishes, and an underlying structure which is not unlike that of any other building. Am I wrong?

Either way, those robots look too clumsy to be able to build houses.

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Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

Algol

Member

From: London

Registered: 2003-04-25

Posts: 196

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

This is what i was saying about rapid-prototyping machinery to cut down the mass of the initial seed.

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Robot Colony - Robots prepping for a human mission.

No, Gaudi was a true intuitional genius (if that exists) the underlying structures are *not* 'normal,' it is not a prety outer layer, the stuff is *functional* as load/stressbearers... he actually looked at nature amongst other things for inspiration, and made  "weird" angled columns etc that turn out to be remarkably strong... Weirdest thing is, if "normal" architects try to 'improve' upon his ideas their additionall stuff collapses...

Algol, agreed, great stuff to work with... If you can set your mind free from 'common sense' architecture. Gaudi did just that, used even *less* material for similarry sized buildings...