Jetpack Enables Anyone To Run A 4-Minute Mile
- Thread starter Blackwell Stith
- Start date
Keep in mind that the overall energy required to finish the mile is lower as well. Even if you had to wear a 2-ton thing on your back, it wouldn't matter as long as it makes you exert less energy than required to hold it. Exhaustion is a huge issue and is a large contributor to casualties. I'd totally wear a 10-pound thing on my back if it would cause less overall exhaustion. Keep in mind that for those of us who actually exercise, 10 pounds focused on your back is absolutely nothing at all.strumbore said:
Already been doneAeshi said:I was just thinking that as well. Combine these with a pair of Rollerskates and I bet you could go crazy fast, though admittedly you'd probably end up breaking both your legs doing that on rough terrain.Merlark said:you would save more energy if you just put a pair of roller skates on them.
Yeah, let's not make the same mistakes as Wile E. Coyote, okay?Aeshi said:I was just thinking that as well. Combine these with a pair of Rollerskates and I bet you could go crazy fast, though admittedly you'd probably end up breaking both your legs doing that on rough terrain.Merlark said:you would save more energy if you just put a pair of roller skates on them.
OT: However, they manage to get this working right? This will be ultra cool.
So they're basically building these?
Huh. I guess the game's design team really did look at current and projected future tech for their world building.
Cool.
Huh. I guess the game's design team really did look at current and projected future tech for their world building.
Cool.
Carrying an extra 10 pounds all day for slightly less exertion for a few minutes does not remotely result in less overall exertion; quite the opposite.EndlessSporadic said:
10 pounds will measurably impair speed and endurance, no matter how much you exercise. F=MA is not magically suspended by being in shape. And they're already carrying, what, 50+ pounds of kit into battle? Weapons, ammunition, gear. And that kit is already very carefully determined to be at the top of what the military considers acceptable encumbrance.EndlessSporadic said:
I think this is awesome. Sure it's heavy and cumbersome now, but it'll get smaller and lighter over time. I think this would be interesting for other stuff too, like doing parkor, pushing someone a little farther for a jump, or a boost to get up a few more inches on a jump. It could have applications for skydiving too, a little bit of force in the right way to slow a descent, something that could mean life or death. There's probably a dozen more things this could be used for that I can't even think of.
This could actually be a really potent thing. It's hard enough as is to hit a moving opponent and lead correctly, but the whole dynamic changes if your opponent can jet burst from cover to cover, or even change speeds on the fly. The latter is especially tricky as you wouldn't notice until it already happened, meaning you aren't hitting anything today.
The title of this is sort of click-batey don't you think? 18 seconds is a good improvement but a four minute mile it is not.
Was going to quote your reply to me, but this seems just as well.Pyrian said:
Specifically to the point here, and one you made in your reply to me, this would be adding ~11 lbs to a kit the soldier's already carrying. The standard infantry loadout at the moment varies from ~90-110lbs. So this awkward, heavy prototype unit is only adding just over 10% of weight to their kit. As I'd previously mentioned, before this thing would ever go live, it'll get smaller, lighter, and harder, as it is with all battlefield technology.
Your points are valid, but you have to start somewhere with the tech, and here it is. Improve on this, and they'll one day get where they want to go.
Combat kit is ~65 lbs (source [https://www2.kuow.org/specials/militaryweight.pdf]), which is already well above the recommended 50 lbs. Marching kit goes well above 100 lbs., but not without consequences (source [http://www.armytimes.com/article/20110214/NEWS/102140308/Report-Combat-soldiers-carry-too-much-weight]). And we're only talking about a 5.6% speed increase.tangoprime said:
I'm not at all convinced that this can be made sufficiently more powerful AND lighter AND harder (AND without other side effects) without major fundamental breakthroughs in energy technology.tangoprime said:
This is a completely inefficient and costly method of attempting to improve a very specific scenario. This runner is on flat terrain, of which there are countless other cheaper methods of improving their speed.
For this technology to be efficient at all we will need to have developments in producing the same power from a smaller piece of equipment. This is just an act of combining current technology into a specific package, not developing those component parts.
Maybe when we have a jet engine that can produce 2x the power and is half the size will this be even slightly cost-effective. Until then, spend more time on actual, functional improvements and not on what is essentially a leaf blower taped to some guy's back.
For this technology to be efficient at all we will need to have developments in producing the same power from a smaller piece of equipment. This is just an act of combining current technology into a specific package, not developing those component parts.
Maybe when we have a jet engine that can produce 2x the power and is half the size will this be even slightly cost-effective. Until then, spend more time on actual, functional improvements and not on what is essentially a leaf blower taped to some guy's back.
Well it's only a prototype, but so far I'm not impressed either.Abomination said:
However, it is the first step towards this:
MAXIMUM SPEED
A combat exoskeleton that does all the weight carrying for you and that could potentially act as an armor makes more sense than this "jet pack", even though it's still not very practical because of the material it's being made off and because once you're out of juice you'd have to leave very expensive tech behind or destroy it in case it's a military thing. We desperately need a breakthrough in graphene technology because we need graphene to be cheap to manufacture like silicone. Both for the purpose of building harder and lighter stuff and more energy efficient electronic devices.
This really bothers me. At the beginning of the video they explain that they were working on making artificial limbs for amputees but then they all of a sudden stopped doing that and started making this stuff for Darpa? That just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Going from doing something as excellent as helping people who have lost limbs to making another high tech toy to make soldiers more efficient at killing people just seems like a waste.
