Slashdot Mirror
Small Robots Could Build Landing Site For Moon Base
A new NASA-sponsored study suggests that small lawnmower-sized robots could be used to build a landing site for a moon outpost. In order to be efficient a landing pad would have to be close to any structures created, but without an atmosphere to slow down the lunar sand it would sandblast the outpost, creating the need for some sort of protection. By using small robots to either build protective berms or collect rocks to "pave" a landing pad, NASA hopes to provide protection against the sand-blasting effects of a landing on the moon.
Now I know how I'm gonna win that sand castle contest this year...
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Just don't let the Chinese know where your moon base is going to be, they'll crash into it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7917957.stm
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
It's all well and good until a some half iPod, half egg timer robot swoops in and steals all the plants out of your greenhouse.
-=Bang Bang=-
Sheesh. How about a standard unit of measurement here, like Volkswagen Beetles or African male elephants or telephone directories? Tell me they at least expressed their hard drive size in multiples of Libraries of Congress.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
If there was any way to automate the process more than it already is, it would be done by now.
Do you have any concept of which you are speaking? Why on earth (lol) would you want to further automate road construction in Minnesota? Human labor on this planet is pretty cheap, even if it is unionized. When you have fly that labor to off word, hiring someone to scrub the great wall of china with a toothbrush is cheap in comparison.
Robots don't need air, food, or water. They can work for long periods of time in utterly hostile environments with little to no supervision. They don't get sick or bored. They can be mass produced. When you are done with them, they don't want to go home. And, they have yet to rise up and try to enslave humanity, which is more than we can say for humanity.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
I think constructing berms and such is redundant. After a few typical NASA landing attempts, there should be a nice crater at the landing site with berms to protect the base.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
OMFG! Those were REAL? I thought those were just fiction!
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
I, for one, live in terror at the idea that machines built for shoving sand around in 1/6th gravity might someday rise up to destroy me. When the last of the brain-apes is buried knee deep in a sad little grit pile, truly they shall rue the day they created the earthmover robot.
Why doesn't NASA simply use a reverse graviton flux to land the spacecraft without any rocket blowing towards the lunar sand ? Oh wait... you guys haven't discovered yet how to create gravitons right ? Shit. I hope I haven't modified this timeline too much by revealing things you aren't supposed to know. Shitshitshit.
We attempted to assasinate Murphy, but it all went horribly wrong.
yeah - then the nanobots go all wrong and reduce the moon to a lifeless planet of grey rock and dust. what will you do then?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?