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America Had an Atomic Mecha Warrior Robot
- imglorp 5y agoKinda. More like a heavily rad shielded vehicle with manipulators for working on atomic aircraft and reactors.
- nix23 5y ago>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
- dane-pgp 5y agoI 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.
- JKCalhoun 5y agoA 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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I 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/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/morris-s2/
- kiliancs 5y ago> not a robot per se but more of an armed, treaded vehicle that a person can drive around That's typically what a mecha is. https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/mecha https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/mecha
- hallway_monitor 5y agoMechas always have legs and look humanoid. It's a pretty big stretch calling this thing a mecha.
- dcuthbertson 5y agoOkay, then give it more powerful engines, and weapons in the place of arms, and you have the beginnings of one of Keith Laumer's Bolos.
- jhbadger 5y agoOr one of Steve Jackson's Ogres. Although both Bolos and Ogres were unmanned AI-controlled vehicles.
- ctoth 5y agoNitpick: Bolos weren't unmanned until the Mark XXII. ...And this is why I'm single.
- mcguire 5y agoYou may want to take a look at the Swedish Stridsvagn 103 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.
- riffraff 5y agoI don't think it's true that Mecha always have legs. 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 https://www.ebay.com/itm/164049621190
- jrochkind1 5y agoThe "Warrior" part seems inaccurate. More like Mechanic/Engineer Bot, not intended for combat uses, no?
- 1234letshaveatw 5y agoWell, the forklift mech in Aliens was pressed into combat. Never say never...
- jrochkind1 5y agoYeah, but they called it a forklift mech, not a Warrior Mech!
- consumer451 5y ago> More like Mechanic/Engineer Bot, not intended for combat uses, no? 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.
- arethuza 5y agoThe 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. Strongly recommended.
- Baeocystin 5y agoLink for the curious: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm It's a fast read. Well worth it, too.
- vangelis 5y agoEh, it had the same unglamorous fate as the robot from Evangelion.
- diskzero 5y agoBefore the pandemic, you could sign up for a tour of the Nevada Test site: https://www.nnss.gov/pages/PublicAffairsOutreach/NNSStours.html https://www.nnss.gov/pages/PublicAffairsOutreach/NNSStours.h... The tour would get you close to the NERVA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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!
- tclancy 5y agoAh, I always liked that ending to Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel.
- timonoko 5y agoSoviet Mechas in Helsinki 1922. https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNrktKhhoYNGBcO3jf2ls2oIVQ9PnoGk71lzJjJ/photo/AF1QipPIM5mkh0Nwqk-UNnlTu-umSbhK8yCUWvwdSfLV https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNrktKhhoYNGBcO3jf2ls2o...
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y agoWhy on earth does Google want me to sign in?
- api 5y agoUhh? To track you?
- alde 5y ago404
- timonoko 5y agoThis 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.
- timonoko 5y agoIs the "Create Link" option more public: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q5SeDkEnvyq6oMnZ8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q5SeDkEnvyq6oMnZ8
- timonoko 5y agoYes it seems to be. You can view the picture in incognito node.
- cookiengineer 5y agoIf you want to know more about the Beetle prototype, this website [1] has lots more pictures and details about it than OP's article. Amazing piece of engineering, considering it was the late 50s when it was engineered. [1] http://cyberneticzoo.com/teleoperators/1958-62-beetle-mobile-manipulator-g-e-corp-american/ http://cyberneticzoo.com/teleoperators/1958-62-beetle-mobile...
- ljf 5y agoCybernetic Zoo is one of those sites you can lose an afternoon to.
- throwaway59553 5y ago>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"
- wittekm 5y agoAh, yes, it's <insert minority here>'s fault that America doesn't build mechas. Go crawl back in to your cave.
- systemvoltage 5y agoI 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.
- robbedpeter 5y agoAnd 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.
- systemvoltage 5y agoBut they created a lot of value for the shareholders, so there’s that. smh.
- robbedpeter 5y agoThis is true, and to be totally fair, the money to lift so incredibly many people out of absolute poverty had to come from somewhere.
- pugworthy 5y agoI wonder if this was the idea seed for Liberty Prime, the giant robot in the game Fallout 4?
- myself248 5y agoI 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.
- netule 5y agoLiberty Prime first appeared in Fallout 3, which was released in 2008, so it could be possible.
- nescioquid 5y agoIt was the seed for the headline, maybe.
- handrous 5y agoMetal Gear, for that matter.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- frankbreetz 5y ago>>roughly $15 million in 2021 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.
- avereveard 5y agoatomic - bog standard engine 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"
- Apocryphon 5y agoIt's atomic and warrior by association or job description. 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.
- mcguire 5y agoWhereas tracked vehicles would (likely) be superior in practice, due to weight vs load-bearing area issues. And most cranes don't have manipulator arms.
- avereveard 5y agoare you familiar with, idk, the whole felling industry?
- mcguire 5y agoNot personally, no. How many degrees of freedom do they need? http://cyberneticzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/tele-manipulator-x640.jpg http://cyberneticzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/tele-man...
- jollybean 5y agoYes, 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.
- tibbydudeza 5y agoI can just image it being in Anchorage Alaska blasting "For Democracy" over it's speakers.
- lhorie 5y agoI 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] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu2iKse_GUA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu2iKse_GUA [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuratas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuratas
- acidburnNSA 5y agoAh 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. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Reactor_Experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Reactor_Experiment [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion#Heat_Transfer_Reactor_Experiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion#He... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMSR-LF1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMSR-LF1
- agency 5y agoTruly 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. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto
- arethuza 5y agoPluto looks quite sensible compared to Gnomon and Sundial - 1Gt and 10Gt bombs respectively (yes Gt not Mt): http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/09/12/in-search-of-a-bigger-boom/ 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.
- mcguire 5y agoOne would be remiss not to remember Project Orion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...) and Project Plowshare (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare). :-)
- Griffinsauce 5y agoOof, that first picture. If the operator sneezes she's scrambled eggs.
- _ZeD_ 5y agoit's... Getter-3 from getter robot?
- bendbro 5y ago> It took the Air Force Special Weapons Center three years and $1.5 million (roughly $15 million in 2021) to build this This price seems very low compared to other government projects.
- hammyhavoc 5y agoMETAL GEAR!?
- imwillofficial 5y agoSo close to having a Gundam, so close…
- bellyfullofbac 5y agoIn an alternate future, the Taliban are fighting against mechs now. Or they'd have requisitioned an abandoned one and we'd be having a mech battle. Sadly the reality is pretty depressing
- matheusmoreira 5y agoProbably closer to Zakus. Imagine the US just airdropping a ton of these things into combat.
- haspoken 5y agoIf you can't see the pictures, try this archive link: https://archive.is/GlPuu https://archive.is/GlPuu
- djstein 5y agoWell I’ll be damned, it’s an actual metal gear
- kevin_thibedeau 5y agoHere's a more detailed article transcribed from Popular Science: http://cyberneticzoo.com/teleoperators/1958-62-beetle-mobile-manipulator-g-e-corp-american/ 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.
- Svperstar 5y ago"Death is a preferable alternative to Communism!" -Liberty Prime
- literallyaduck 5y agoI like this one better: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28283036 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28283036
- rubicon33 5y ago> It took the Air Force Special Weapons Center three years and $1.5 million (roughly $15 million in 2021). Anyone else find this amazing? There's no way this would be less than a $500 million project nowadays.
- snth 5y agoIsn't it an "Atomic Mecha Repairman Robot"?