Tires on the ground ...

Shando and stoat, I haven't modelled it yet, but i was thinking about a single wheel that would trail the vehicle as I have drawn it, sort of a third leg so to speak. This could be lowered for times when the cameras are in capture mode, it could also help jack the vehicle out of rut if the occasion arised. Additionally, the retracting leg could be servo operated and contain besides a wheel: antenna, experiment modules (soil collection, gas detection), drill bits, or even some type of a corkscrew anchor for wind security. let me know what you think.

Mark Vitrone

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Larry Burford</i>

It would be cool if some of the audience members let us know what they think about this - offbeat? - idea.

LB
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I am thinking that an earth-bound model of the vehicle should be developed and sold to amusement parks such as epcot or Disney or as an add-on to the many paint-ball parks around the country. The general public could pay to play in novel environments. Think minature, wireless, remote controlled Segway Personal Transporters.

The proceeds could help finance the off-earth versions; first the moon and then mars.

This approach has the additional benefit of painless market research: if the earth-bound versions are not popular, the off-earth versions are likely to be a hard-sell. OTOH, if the earth-bound versions are highly popular, the off-earth versions become a LOT easier to sell.

The start-up costs should be managable, especially if we find a sponser who wants to put his logo in the field of view of the remote control display.

Are you suggesting the ability to arm this device with paintball guns? Because I have thought of the other variant for military development. I think this could be a great laser designator for aircraft. Agile and low to the ground, along with the ability to be launched by artillery.

Hmmmm

Mark Vitrone

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by MarkVitrone</i>
<br />Are you suggesting the ability to arm this device with paintball guns?

Mark Vitrone
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The thought had occured to me but I didn't want to complicate things.

The original idea I had, some years ago, was to create a miniture, wireless remote controlled, tank-like vehicle armed with a suitable visually guided laser cannon for shooting down flies in poultry manure pits. The farmer could charge people to "play" in his moon-like, dry manure pits and get rid of some flies at the same time.

This idea in turn was inspired by a visit in '95 to a high-performance computer company (Silicon Graphics, I think) in california who had created a two person flight simulator where the "pilots" sat back to back and could engage each other in simulated fighter-jet dog-fights. Vietnam vets were paying good money at a nearby bar for time on the machine, and having a ball.

Here's the model on Mars.

I was making a model of Leo Vuyk's electron and it got me thinking about the toroidal model of the elctron. So here's another toy for Mark to make.

If we take two light springs, about an inch in diameter, about eight inches long, and inflate a long baloon in each of them. Actually I think bamboo and rice paper might be best.

Add two light card disks to the ends. These two springs are attached to a lightweight electric motor, that has a shaft fore and aft. The other end of the spings are twisted round in a circle and are fixed to bearings on a battery pack.

This is just to counter balance the thing. Then glue a rod between the motor and the battery pack. What we'll end up with, hopefully, is a rotating toroidal ring that acts as a wing.