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The engineering is genuinely impressive for $96, but naming the repo "MANPADS-System-Launcher-and-Rocket" on GitHub is going to attract exactly the kind of atte
by redgridtactical 7mo ago
The engineering is genuinely impressive for $96, but naming the repo "MANPADS-System-Launcher-and-Rocket" on GitHub is going to attract exactly the kind of attention you don't want. ITAR implications aside, the interesting part is the mid-flight trajectory recalculation on a $5 sensor. That's the same basic problem military guidance systems solve with hardware that costs thousands.
The gap between consumer electronics and mil-spec capability keeps shrinking and this is a pretty stark demonstration of where that trend leads. A few years ago this would have required an IMU that cost more than this entire build. The democratization angle cuts both ways though - the same accessibility that makes this cool for hobbyists makes it genuinely concerning from a proliferation standpoint.
- mikkupikku 7mo agoIt's not really terribly new actually, in the past, rapid advances in consumer technology have enabled other sort of weapon guidance systems. For instance, the development of extremely compact television cameras available to consumers directly lead to the development of the Walleye television bomb. It happened when one nerdy guy was fucking around with his new camera and realized that he could automatically track track features in an analogue television signal using some quite basic analogue electronics. Point the camera into the general direction of the target and you can then "lock on" to some target feature and based on contrast it could tell how that feature was moving around in the image. He implemented a 1D tracker in his garage, took it to work and showed people. A few years later these bombs are taking out bridges and even sometimes hitting moving trucks.
- jeffbee 7mo agoPeople made self-guided missiles with 1940s technology, in the 1940s. It can't be too much of a surprise if someone right now can make guided missiles in their garage with 2026 electronics. At this point the "guided" feature is trivial, the "missile" part is doable, and the weapon has probably become the tricky part.
- dw_arthur 7mo agoThrowing an aside here that anyone interested in 1940s war technology must check out the old BBC documentary The Secret War (1977) which goes into depth on solving the engineering challenges of the war.
- hermitcrab 7mo agoWell worth a watch. I think I watched it on Youtube.
- mikkupikku 7mo agoI think the hard part was and will usually continue to be making the whole thing work effectively together with enough performance to actually work in practice. It's a lot of details across a lot of disciplines to get right.
- tclancy 7mo ago> The gap between consumer electronics and mil-spec capability keeps shrinking My friend's brother works in munitions and had, in his spare time, designed and prototyped a missile that could be built for about 10k. He pretty much was ignored by the contractor he works for. Shockingly, as of a couple weeks ago, they are all hot and bothered to talk.
- redgridtactical 7mo agoI wonder what could have possibly sparked that... lol
- redgridtactical 7mo agoThat tracks. The defense primes have zero incentive to make things cheaper — their business model is cost-plus. A guy building something for 10k in his garage is an existential threat to programs billing 500k per unit. Of course they ignored him until the geopolitical situation made it impossible to keep ignoring.
- srean 7mo ago> That tracks. The defense primes have zero incentive to make things cheaper Same in medical imaging industry.
- hrmtst93837 7mo ago[flagged]
- gmerc 7mo agoBut do they drift enough to hit girls schools?
- numbsafari 7mo agoAsk Claude
- redgridtactical 7mo agoOof
- hrmtst93837 7mo ago[flagged]
- jacquesm 7mo agoIt may not have drifted at all.
- mosura 7mo agoFor different definitions of cheap though. While the pure gyro/accelerometer stuff does suffer from major problems the improvements in SLAM using just cameras in the last 15 years are insane.
- redgridtactical 7mo agoVisual SLAM on a rocket would be wild. The frame rates you'd need at those velocities are brutal though — feature tracking falls apart fast when your entire visual field is changing at hundreds of m/s. Drones are the sweet spot where camera-based nav really shines.
- jacquesm 7mo agoThat's because for short term they are really good, for the longer term the drift is too large so you will need many layers of sensors with different characteristics.
- shrubble 7mo agoConsumer GPS chips are specifically nerfed for using them in rockets; they give erroneous readings on purpose if altitude is above a certain height and/or if speeds exceed a certain speed. That’s likely why the mid-course correction software uses other methods.
- nekusar 7mo agoChinese GPS chips dont have those restrictions. I even have 1 that can remove up to 8 active jamming signals. Gotta love what you can buy for $20
- ninjagoo 7mo agoIt would be interesting to see if those are only for external sale vs restricted for sale within China. If China allows those unrestricted chips to be sold internationally but not domestically it would be a strategic long-term decision, I would think. Destabilize the neighbors but not themselves. The more likely reason is that their government has simply not gotten around to restricting it.
- jijijijij 7mo agoI mean, do you have the impression they are destabilizing anything with this (implying these GPS restrictions are actually needed)?
- bragr 7mo agoThe restrictions on GPS prevent ballistic missiles, not MANPADs. Typical limits are 515 m/s and 18,000 meters (try using your phone's GPS on a commercial flight, it works fine near a window). Update rate is probably the biggest issue with GPS and MANPADs.
- jijijijij 7mo agoAre these chips so much better at calculating GPS position than general purpose CPUs or consumer FPGAs? Feels like a silly restrictions for anyone capable of building a ballistic missile. On the other hand it seems relatively computationally expensive to do a speed check every time for low energy devices.
- the__alchemist 7mo ago> A few years ago this would have required an IMU that cost more than this entire build. Are you sure about this? MEMS IMUs have been popular and cheap for ~10-15 years.
- danmaz74 7mo agoMore than the electronics, I would be curious about the performance of 3d-printed plastic parts on a rocket. Are they strong enough?
- regularfry 7mo agoPeople have been doing 3d printed model rockets for a while now. With no payload they experience higher acceleration than this will.
- hermitcrab 7mo ago3d printed PLA and spiral wound cardboard is generally fine for hobby rockets, until they start going supersonic - then you need metal. I'm not sure the launch tube could withstand the heat of the rocket exhaust though. Although that might depend what it is printed with.
- mothballed 7mo agoOwning a system designed for surface to air weapon carries life imprisonment any USA, without any intent for violence, just simple possession or conspiracy to possess[]. Doesn't even matter if you have an NFA stamp, there is no exception except if it's done with authorization and behalf of the government. Merely having a device intended to guide the rocket is also the same penalty. [] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2332g https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2332g
- blincoln 7mo agoSeems like the quick fix is to rebrand this from "MANPADS" to "anti-tank", right? Then it would just be a standard destructive device?
- gos9 7mo agoAI slop comment
- dzhiurgis 7mo agoBingo. Against guidelines.
- FergusArgyll 7mo agobeep boop