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July 23, 2006
Print Me A 3D Plane
When I was just a wee-geek-boy, I remember watching a show called Beyond 2000 and in a particular episode, they covered a new technology called 3d printing which uses lasers to carve and melt polymer together. At the time, it was just small projects - little objects that could help designers better envision and test their creations. This opened the doors to rapid prototyping.
Fast forward almost 20 years and it seems the technology has advanced far enough to print not only the object, but the mechanics inside as well.
One of the first to fruition from this technology is of course, funded by the military. It's called the Polecat UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), designed to test cheaper and faster manufacturing technologies. Since most of its parts are laser printed, there is less room for manufacturing errors as computers are far more accurate and consistent.
If the project proves successful, we could see the technology trickle down to consumer levels. 3D laser printing could be the bridge between current manufacturing methodologies and the often romanticized nano technology.
Posted by tranism at 6:37 PM | Permalink
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July 2, 2006
Big Earth, Bigger Universe
As a kid, I remember looking up at the sky and thinking if I reached far enough, I could touch it. Thus began my fascination with our world and beyond. In the 2nd grade I learned about the other planets in our solar system and soon after, my first visit to the planetarium. During that presentation, I was in awe how tiny Earth was compared to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Sure, I always knew they were bigger but my young mind could not visually comprehend what hundreds of thousands of square miles looked like. The planetarium put that into perspective.
I'm all grown up now and every now and then, some news of space comes my way that perks my interest but never have I really relived those moments from when I was a kid.
I came across this page that has scale models of our space neighborhood. Yes, Earth is really blue and its quite large compared to Mars. No shocker there. Yes Jupiter and Saturn are huge but again, no shocker there. Then I see the planets scaled to size against our sun. Not really a shocker, but def. an eye opener. At this scale, Earth is very tiny. Even Jupiter is dramatically dwarfed. Move beyond our solar system and we find stars and planets that make even our sun look miniscule. In fact, so tiny, that the sun is only 1 pixel big compared to some of the stars out there.
The universe is so vast. My mind boggles at the seemingly limitless space. I can imagine even larger stars, so large, they even eclipse our entire solar system in size. THAT'S HUGE!
I love the universe and I'm glad to say, I think I'm having that moment of "first discovery" again, and it really feels good.
Posted by tranism at 2:31 AM | Permalink
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