https://spectrum.ieee.org/metal-forming-robot
"In the 1960s and 1970s, NASA spent a lot of time thinking about whether
toroidal (donut-shaped) fuel tanks were the way to go with its spacecraft.
Toroidal tanks have a bunch of potential advantages over conventional spherical
fuel tanks. For example, you can fit nearly 40% more volume within a toroidal
tank than if you were using multiple spherical tanks within the same space. And
perhaps most interestingly, you can shove stuff (like the back of an engine)
through the middle of a toroidal tank, which could lead to some substantial
efficiency gains if the tanks could also handle structural loads.
Because of their relatively complex shape, toroidal tanks are much more
difficult to make than spherical tanks. Even though these tanks can perform
better, NASA simply doesn’t have the expertise to manufacture them anymore,
since each one has to be hand-built by highly skilled humans. But a company
called Machina Labs thinks that they can do this with robots instead. And their
vision is to completely change how we make things out of metal."
Via
Fix the News:
https://fixthenews.com/the-three-sisters/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
