Please think about tools for less or zero gravity - space

Hello, spacecowboy,

what does "I got you beat" mean? I suppose to have problems to understand a special english term here. It sounds as if we were competing for something which I didn't have in mind.

Regarding your link: Thank You Very Much for it - I remember the title of a NIAC-study including the term Taylor-force field but I didn't know yet that this term has to do with what the german article reported. This majorly has to do with Technical English it seems. So you closed a gap of identification.



Thank You Very Much again,

Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

Us Americans like to turn pretty much anything into a competition -- for example, one guy from down the hall (yes, I live in a dorm -- hoping to get either a suite or an apartment next year, but for one more semester yet, I live in a dorm). Anyway, as I was saying, one guy from down the hall and I were having a competition about who had the best music on their computer. I pulled out a dance remix of "The Scotsman's Kilt" and won by a nose (somehow he wasn't fazed by the theme from DS9).

So yeah, you're right. We're screwy.

Oh, and I have no clue what a Taylor forcefield is. I'll remember to find that out, though, when I see him (which will be sometime in the next couple weeks).

haha -- I just looked that that link I posted again, and I believe we have another piece of information lost in the translation: it's not a Taylor Force Field, it's a Tailored Force Field. That solves your problem, I believe.

Not all of us.

Bah. I do it for entertainment purposes only.

In between the tailored-force-fields-idea obviously has been menitioned in an article about STAIF including an illustration - "Research Warps into Hyperdrive" ( www.space.com/businesstechnology/060308 ... drive.html ).



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist

Besides the Tailored-Frce-Fileds-concept which I already start to read more about - what about using Mechatronics also?

May be they have been mentioned already - I am speaking about them because there is an article in Witschaftswoche is repprting about hardware which will be shown at the Hannover Messe at he end of April.

The german company Festo has developed a Mechatronics-grabber which servo-pneumatic. It is called HGPPI.. It can move its fingers independently of each other and thus dose its strength very precisely. And the DLR together with the FraunhoferSociety have developed and built a "Leichtbau"-robot - "Leichtbau" I suppose to mean light weight here - which is five times more capable and efficient that former models. It can hover objects weighing up to half of its own weight. Only five cables are required for external connection.. Its hand reacts to counterpressure and can take raw eggs without hurting are damaging them.

Most interesting regarding that DLR/Fraunhofer-robot - it has been designed and developed for application in space!



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

There recently was the article "Mini-Satellite to Test Big Concepts Aboard Space Station" ( www.space.com/businesstechnology/060503 ... s_iss.html ) I quoted in Sean Girling's thread about clumpibg satellites together.

The article includes the follwoing issue:

So these satellites may be something simplifying and further enabling assembly of stations, vehicles etc. in space.

What tools should they be equipped by?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

How about nanobots that connect to each other at different points and angles, then lock in position. From a fluid or solid resting state, they could self assemble into any required tool in seconds.

Now if I could just get them to glow red or blue, I could build myself a light-sabre.

We can easily conjecture space suits that don't impede movement and visibility, spacestation components that require either no human intervention or greatly simplified and probably remote manipulation, but what happens if an emergency happens and everything fails and you need someone to go out there and (by hand) flatten a piece of metal? or cut a piece of hard plastic? Yeah, earth hammers won't work well in space, but it would still be a great idea if someone came up with a way to do the work of a hammer in zero-G.

For example, a hammer works well because of a long moment arm attached to a fixed axis of rotation (your shoulder, typically). The effect of leverage of the moment arm increases work, and the fixed length of the arm coupled with a fixed axis of rotation means that trajectory can be easily calculated and counted on (repeated hammerings will multiply the effect of the tool). A spring-loaded trebuchet attached to the side of a space station could ostensibly work like a hammer. As long as you suction cup the tool to the working surface (and add a safety line to contain any possible motion after impact) - then stay back - you've got a pretty effective device for smacking things either into place or into a flattened topography.

Smacking things into place is a method generally frowned upon in American aerospace engineering circles.... Although I hear it's considered much more useful to the Russians.

In any case, there's very little reason to be smacking things into place, anyway. That's what propellant thrusters are made for. Oh, and thomaskr, you need to consider your advice in terms of Newtonian Mechanics. Think about it for a moment.

And welcome to the boards, thomaskr! Glad to have you.

Well, at least it could be used to launch projectiles... I think a similar device is/was being used to launch a golf ball from the ISS this year

Either way, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Chuck stuff into higher orbit, and you'll push yourself into a lower orbit. Unfortunate, but true. The way rotating tethers are supposed to work (on the off chance you're wondering) is that they use an electric current and the Earth's own magnetic field to push themselves back up into a higher orbit. Of course, once the Energizer bunny stops going, so does the tether. But that's a different problem entirely.

Maybe that's why the Russians have an operational, manned launch system, while the Americans don't?

AFAIK hammers work in space, as long as you have something to hold onto & brace against during the back and fore swing.

One of the biggest problems during an EVA is the gloves. Try doing up your shoe laces while wearing a pair of thick gardening gloves. Eventually, I think we will see mechanical hands outside the suit, exactly matching the movements of the astronauts hands inside the suit, with force feedback.

Well, you could extrapolate further and envision a future when space walks will be conducted solely thru mechanical proxy (most likely exactly what will happen). But what's the fun in that?

My take on the original question was to find space-usable versions of simple tools that would not require any electronics, batteries or computers! For example: how much of the ISS is held together with duct tape? (again I wink)