View Full Version : You guys gotta see this!!
backpacking will never be the same
http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do?displayContent=186708
take-a-knee
03-16-2009, 00:08
Cal Berkley has been working on that thing for a long time, among others. Read Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein and you'll know where the inspiration for it came from.
Darwin again
03-16-2009, 00:23
The video didn't note that each set costs only $3.4 million taxpayer dollars.
That fits right in with the mentality of using billion dollar airplanes flying through 13 time zones (and back) to drop 10 $250,000 bombs on six guys in a mud hut --- really cool but really dumb and wasteful.
Maybe they'll take a check?
MintakaCat
03-16-2009, 06:02
The video didn't note that each set costs only $3.4 million taxpayer dollars.
Can't find that on the web, got a link?
I can't wait till Wally sells then for 49.99
I already have a set, and they are very nice.
Hmmm... Maybe they can build me a suit that can walk a thru for me while I sit here and work dreaming about it.. Oh wait, that's what this site offers me...
Why is it we can spend insane amounts of money to find more efficient and effective methods of killing one another, like this contraption, yet we can't seem to find the money to spend on assisting and protecting the most vulnerable of our planet?
I agree, cool concept, but dumb and wasteful!
npoles91
03-16-2009, 07:53
even if it was affordable I don't see why you'd spend the money. Isn't there something to be said about hauling your own gear with your own strength?
What's new? Don't many hikers already carry an exoskeleton? What are hiking poles, anyway?
take-a-knee
03-16-2009, 09:21
The video didn't note that each set costs only $3.4 million taxpayer dollars.
That fits right in with the mentality of using billion dollar airplanes flying through 13 time zones (and back) to drop 10 $250,000 bombs on six guys in a mud hut --- really cool but really dumb and wasteful.
You need to pony up a few million for one of these Darwin, it might keep you from leaning so damned far to the left, help you evolve a bit more (you have a ways to go yet).
Please refrain from the political banter, folks. This ain't the place for it. Thanks
4eyedbuzzard
03-16-2009, 09:45
53 lbs empty without batteries. Hmmm... so if I wanted to use it for any length of time my useful load is equal to 200lbs minus 53 lbs static weiht minus the weight of needed batteries. At some point the whole device becomes a way to carry a lot of batteries in order to carry, er, ah, batteries. Hmmm...:-?:(
YoungMoose
03-16-2009, 09:47
looks like the most stupidest idea ever.
UnkaJesse
03-16-2009, 10:11
It might be worth the price of admission just to watch the ultra-light folks keel over when you tell them that the pack itself is 53 pounds.
take-a-knee
03-16-2009, 10:39
53 lbs empty without batteries. Hmmm... so if I wanted to use it for any length of time my useful load is equal to 200lbs minus 53 lbs static weiht minus the weight of needed batteries. At some point the whole device becomes a way to carry a lot of batteries in order to carry, er, ah, batteries. Hmmm...:-?:(
Someone likely made a similar observation of Henry Ford's Model T pickup, methinks the technology has improved a mite since then. If the comments here were limited only to those who've gotten off of a helicopter with about a 120# of crap to carry a long ways you'd see quite a bit more interest.
Darwin again
03-16-2009, 11:41
Sorry, I was wrong.
It's a seven-year, $75 million Raytheon-Darpa project. (http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/the_real_iron_man_xos_exoskeleton_10163.asp)
That's OK then. The Chinese are paying for it.
"At Raytheon, we never forget whose money we're stealing!"
Link: http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/the_real_iron_man_xos_exoskeleton_10163.asp
The suit only runs for 40 minutes then the batteries are dead.
Excellent!
4eyedbuzzard
03-16-2009, 11:48
Someone likely made a similar observation of Henry Ford's Model T pickup, methinks the technology has improved a mite since then. If the comments here were limited only to those who've gotten off of a helicopter with about a 120# of crap to carry a long ways you'd see quite a bit more interest.
Not saying it doesn't have some military or special use potential. But based upon the battery life, it isn't going to help anyone looking to carry that 120# very far. Like I said, "at some point..."--it becomes a bit like a rocket, you keep adding more fuel to lift fuel. The payload ultimately becomes a rather small % of the entire device. Just saying that its actual use would be quite limited by the current level of battery technology.
Battery technology will continue to improve.
While, like many other things, the initial investment was for military purposes. imagine the potential for civilian application of this or it's evolutionary technology. 3.4 million dollars of taxpayer money may not seem so excessive if you are among the millions of people confined to a wheelchair or crutches.
4eyedbuzzard
03-16-2009, 11:56
Battery technology will continue to improve.
Yep.
While, like many other things, the initial investment was for military purposes. imagine the potential for civilian application of this or it's evolutionary technology. 3.4 million dollars of taxpayer money may not seem so excessive if you are among the millions of people confined to a wheelchair or crutches.
Very good point.
paradoxb3
03-16-2009, 12:16
even if it was affordable I don't see why you'd spend the money. Isn't there something to be said about hauling your own gear with your own strength?
considering the source (military.com) and its intended purpose (battlefield), no. Why should it? If it were a consumer retail product featured in backpacker magazine, then perhaps yes. But I wouldn't imagine a soldier would make any complaints (or care) about how a much needed gear/ammunition resupply arrived.
BAG "o" TRICKS
03-16-2009, 12:32
Suit was in popular science mag year or so ago.
Fannypack
03-16-2009, 12:47
Suit was in popular science mag year or so ago.
BOT, make sure u logoff your acct because there are some persons who will post using your acct...
Enjoy the AT, see ya in May....
Darwin again
03-16-2009, 13:00
There's nothing politically left or right about objecting to piles of taxpayer money thrown down a flaming rat hole, like for this nonsense.
Raytheon thanks you!
link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Raytheon+cost+overuns&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=Raytheon+cost+overun
MintakaCat
03-16-2009, 13:30
There's nothing politically left or right about objecting to piles of taxpayer money thrown down a flaming rat hole, like for this nonsense.
Raytheon thanks you!
link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Raytheon+cost+overuns&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=Raytheon+cost+overun
Wait a minute, the original post was about a Lockheed Martin project, not Raytheon. LOL, did I miss something?
Powder River
03-16-2009, 14:40
They've already invented this- it's called slackpacking! :D:D
take-a-knee
03-16-2009, 16:47
There's nothing politically left or right about objecting to piles of taxpayer money thrown down a flaming rat hole, like for this nonsense.
Raytheon thanks you!
link: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Raytheon+cost+overuns&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=Raytheon+cost+overun
Would you say the same for the space program?
take-a-knee
03-16-2009, 16:50
They've already invented this- it's called slackpacking! :D:D
Good point, there is however, no one available to slack pack your .50 caliber Barrett for you in the Hindu Kush (also enough food and water to live for a month), hence the development of the exoskeleton.
ColdFire
03-16-2009, 17:12
If it helps benefit the troops I'm all for it.
With my luck it would get stuck in burst speed going through the smokies.
Darwin again
03-16-2009, 17:56
Would you say the same for the space program?
Which space program?
The shuttle?
Absolutely.
It was all cool and rah-rah, etc., but the thing is a poorly designed money pit with two of the five orbiters destroyed in accidents and their crews killed. Success like that speaks for itself. And where's the technological benefit? Zippy doo dah.
Blah, blah blah. There's a reason you're on my ignore list...