It's a bit counterintuitive, but I like how the solution seems not to be some new exotic material but rather just a clever combination of guardian angles.
Unironically that's more or less what tanks tried to do in ww2 and later on. Angles are huge when protecting something since some of the energy is deflected - but if used badly they take too much space
That "honeycomb" shield is such a cool idea, and a beautiful illustration of Newton's 3rd law. Like... no, we can't just *stop* the projectile; but there's no reason we can't cleverly (and destructively -- but strategically so, akin to crumple zones on modern car bumpers) redirect its energy back on itself and away from the goods!
...or like in some martial arts... using the opponent's energy against them. It is in truth not an impenetrable barrier, but a true deflector. Now imagine some material as a rapidly spinning -disk- *CONE.* What then?
@@ExtantFrodo2 There is no way you could spin the cone fast enough to matter. Even if you could spin up your shield to 100,000 RPM (approaching the limits of feasibility for current material science), from the projectile's point of view, it would still be basically stationary. So the impact would be very similar to what was demonstrated with the angled plate. You would also need a double layer of spinners, and whatever mechanism is doing the spinning since the protected area of each one would be a circle, you'd need the second layer to cover the gaps in the first. That is to say nothing of the added complexity and weight of such a system. If you could some how spin up a cone of material to the required speed, that would make for some very interesting interactions. I suspect that the cone would become more effective than an unmoving plate since the spinning would be bringing more material into the path of the projectile than a stationary plate of the same thickness would, effectively making the spinning plate thicker. That's just a guess though; hyper velocity impacts are frequently unintuitive and behave very differently than "normal" impacts so I doubt that we will ever see this particular thought experiment demonstrated outside of computer simulations, if even in that.
That is not Newton's third law. Newton's third law will only say the same force will be applied to the asteroid as the shield(because of which it evaporates)
@@resurgam_b7 You offer some good thoughts on this matter. In addition the spinning center of the cone would be as ineffective as stationary material would be since it would not be presenting the same "thickening" aspect. The overlap you mentioned would have to encompass those areas as well.
@@ExtantFrodo2 That's a good point, I wasn't even considering the center of the cone and the attachment point. I imagine it would be fairly catastrophic for the spacecraft if the bolt holding the ludicrously fast spinning mass were to suddenly disintegrate from an impact directly to it. Come to think of it, a hit anywhere on a shield like that would almost certainly unbalance the cone and cause it begin oscillating horribly if it didn't just break up immediately. Then you would get hyper velocity cone fragments to deal with in addition to the micro-meteors you were already facing. All in all a bad day for the astronauts I'd say!
The stracture shown in 9:10 is the lattice stracture of Euplectella aspergillum , a deep sea sponge. What is remarkable about it is that it is the optimal lattice stracture that results in the strongest form given a specific weight.
why cook up an array of complicated computers, needing to make complex calculations and model hundreds of structures, when nature has been doing so for literal billions of years? All that computational-result wealth of knowledge, out there for us to take!
@@tonylee1667 well, im not here professing what you think, so youre wrong there. Im literally a biologist, so i know what im talking about, so you managed to be wrong on three things at the same time: 1) you dont know what i think 2) i dont think its magic, i literally know how the science of it works 3) and no, it IS calculation intensive, its just being outsourced to billions of years and countless organisms and deaths (rewriting iterations). Every enzyme is a 'gate', every Dna and Rna 'strings'. Every organism is a supercompex 'computer', and every niche is a 'server' and every community a connection of 'servers', and then you have whole ecosystems that are even a metastructure on top of that. Literally if someone would have the competence to appreciate the complexity, it would be a biologist like me.
I don't know what is cooler, the fact that the testing resulted in an ability to cause the impactor to flip a U turn, or that their death gun is pointed at UT's stadium. 🤣
As much as it hurts me to say, I don't think there would be much use of it. The camera they use at the facility is far better than any of the Phantom cameras, achieving higher framerate/resolution. It could be a fun video with Gav going over the technology and challenges of filming something like this and get real deep into it with a longer 2nd channel video though.
Your content really has an incredible consistency of quality. I look forward to every one of your videos! Also, I found the easter egg. I know I should have seen it coming, but you got me. :)
@@mumiemonstret But besides being a symbol of Christianity, the term grew to denote a particular hidden element in Western media production, intended for dedicated community to discover on their own. Eastern eggs are typically intended leftovers in a production that is sufficiently large, expensive, or manned, sometimes as a joke, as a reference, as a homage, or for marketing purposes (and building up a hype). It largely depends on the audience commitment (you don't use them in a video intended for casual viewers or grandmas) and the solemnity of the product (you don't use them while explaining Holocaust). In the recent times Eastern eggs are done for the sake of it, most commonly in movies, cartoons, video games, as well as short documentaries such as this one, because it would be weird to do so in a piece of music, for example. Normally the media itself has to be multidimensional and possess a multitude of sensory streams, so anything that has a moving image is basically quite compatible with the concept.
@@mumiemonstret yes, probably. I, for one, don't even care. that's probably something only his long-time viewership understands. maybe it's something cool, but I don't have the time to even pretend to be interested lol
If they didn't have test footage I'd never believe it worked so well! It's such a simple idea, elegant in its execution, and ripe for further innovations. With all that internal space, setting up systems to detect exactly where impacts occur and how much energy they carry is almost trivial!
I was so not expecting my college to show up in a video! I saw the academic building in the intro, and as soon as you said "Texas A&M University" I almost jumped out of my seat lol. Gig 'em, Aggies!
With all the new engineering students more and more of this stuff will pop up. It would be super cool if a&m becomes known nationwide for their engineering program like Georgia tech or MIT
You’re missing something. Holding a vacuum on the target side of the gun also greatly increases the projectile speed since there is no gas pressure buildup in the barrel between the projectile and target.
@@niklaskoskinen123 You’re right but that wasn’t my point. His explanation of how they were attaining the projectile speeds in the gun was incomplete is all I was saying.
@@jimk8520 Fair enough. It's all about what you are comparing it to, though. Shooting a gun in space won't reach the same speeds, and this video will explain why.
@Jim K Exactly. The target getting to sit in a vacuum much as it would in space is a free bonus - the barrel in front of the projectile would be under vacuum ANYWAY, for the reason you state, regardless of whether or not you want to study space stuff.
Awesome video. Micrometeorite impacts are going to be one of the most critical aspects of future space operations. whether it's armoring our satellites this century or going to another star half a millenia from now
It shouldn't be - it's not like it would disintegrate as a whole (it's a layered construction) and small hole wouldn't depresurize space station like in some movies. It's like draining a pool through a small hole. It takes a lot of time.
@@petrkubena yeah but it will still be scary and also when the meteorite punches through the glass and your behind it wouldn’t you be feeling some pain
"Meteoroid and Debris Protection" was about 2% of the Space Station's budget (I worked on that project). It has the "Whipple shields" described in the video to protect the crew modules and pressure tanks. The now Space Force tracks dead satellites and debris in low orbit, mostly with radar. If a bigger piece looks like it will come too close, the Station moves out of the way. Windows not only have covers when not being used, but have four layers of glass. Losing a window would be a catastrophic loss of pressure. Some stuff just doesn't need protection. The solar arrays have been punctured multiple times, but they are so thin stuff just flies through. There are thousands of solar cells, so losing a few to impact damage isn't a big deal.
5:40 to put that 63394 joules of energy into perspective, penetration of human skin requires about 80 joules (to penetrate bone it is only about 28 joules). Lower density mostly water based flesh protects bones.
additional fun fact I know thanks to airsoft, it ony requires about 1 to 2 joules to 'break' skin. as in, to impact hard enough to cause a superficial wound.
Other interesting reference in this case, the average energy of a .50 BMG bullet is 20,000 joules. And it is already called an anti-material munition 😅
6:34 nice error code :p edit: woah that honeycomb shield design is really cool, the premise sounds about as physically sound as pulling the wagon you're sitting in, but it actually turns the debris around!
@@AtomicFrontier instead of a coffee, can I request a video on the science being done by indigenous people in North America, properly known as Turtle Island? I dunno if this topic fits into your channel, but indigenous land management on Turtle Island is an extremely interesting topic, like burning down a forest to save it.
As a Texas A&M Former Student, it brings a happy tear to my eye knowing that the projectile cannon is pointed towards Texas’s campus. Shoot varsity’s horns off!
Cool video! I think you did a great job. I came into this knowing little to nothing about asteroid shields and left knowing the physics of how they work and the challenges they face. Thank you!
I am mentioning that the particle exiting at right angles is called normalizing of the projectile, as defense departments spent money trying to improve weapons design through designing projectiles that normalize and go through armor. Awesome video:)
You have no idea how much I have wanted a good video about this whole process. It's like you surgically hit the exact nerve ending I have had an itch on for well over a decade. My only gripe is that this is not the first ten minutes of an 8 hour long documentary, but that would be a bit much to ask for. 4:48 I feel like that is glossed over. Surely the camera need a lot of light. Like A LOT of light. Hell, I could watch an 8 hour documentary on just the camera alone.
It's not even the biggest such gun. The largest indoor one is between Chattanooga and Nashville, at an Air Force test range: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AEDC_Range_G The largest one is slower but a much bigger barrel, the HARP gun now at the Army Yuma proving grounds, in Arizona: api.army.mil/e2/c/images/2016/08/22/447843/original.jpg
Fantastic and fascinating! I didn't foresee the idea of using angled shields to turn the debris or projectile. You learn something new every day! Thank you!
Love you're videos. I've been subbed since the first time I saw you probably 3 years ago and I'm amazed you don't have more subscribers, you've had the same production quality all this time
It reminds me of tanks. The tank rounds experience what's called normalization, this is where an incoming round hitting slopped armor deviates into the armor a bit, this effect can be amplified with a soft nose cone on the projectile and plates with higher hardness normalize less due to less digging. That's why I often armor applique added by troops was less effective because any issue was being normalized
Pretty sure that it will eventually be used on tanks, if not already. Many technologies that were initially developed for space ended up finding earth-based applications. We either get lighter tank armor for the same protection, or better armouring for the same weight. It could translate into higher speed, longer driving range, and/or fuel savings. Who knows? I'll leave it to the engineers but it's fun to ponder about :)
@@lamdelmundo8492 sort of, some composite armour relies on the projectile hitting it deflecting in the way shown in this video. Albeit since the velocity is lower, the effect is not quite as strong.
Very interesting how the final solution is similar in spirit to a military tank's spaced armor. Both problems are so similar, in so many ways. High speed projectile, can't make armor too heavy. Solution, space and slant the armor.
True, but kinetic anti tank weapons have high mass and density which can take a beating by armor, where as space debris has high velocity but low mass, making spaced and sloped armor much more effective due to shattering. But you are right, the principles are the same
I wasn't aware of how the projectiles come out the other side on an angle, but being an enthusiast of stuff like tanks, I have wondered about thinner armor that consists of alternating directions of plates with an interior structure similar to thick-walled cardboard, taking the advantages of both spaced and angled armor. It's interesting to see that a similar sort of thing has been trialled for spaceflight!
Love your videos! Your work is showing a steady improvement in quality. Since I expect you to continue this progress, it's practically guaranteed that you'll have to say the word "debris" again somewhere down the line. Probably wanna double-check the pronunciation before that happens :)
Challenging Tom Scott in information density, Veritasium in writing, Vsauce in pacing, and now the man is taking on the Slo-Mo Guys. He‘s speedrunning RUclips lordship.
At some point in the past I read a sci-fi story that had something similar to that final design. It wasn't exactly the same, but basically the hull of the ship was made out of two plates with a matrix inside that decreased weight but provided similar protection. Wish I could recall the name of the book. I guess it's not surprising, contemporary science-fiction authors tend to draw from the same general zeitgeist that scientists themselves do, since feasibility is what separates science fiction from science fantasy.
When i was in school one of my physics professors showed us a picture of a window on the ISS with cracks and a lg gouge. Scary enough on its own but when he explained itd been caused by a fleck of paint from an old booster, satellite etc... that was calculated to be just shy of a centimeter across really brought home how fast and dangerous debris up there is. For my masters i built and described a debris de-orbiting platform that used a 1kw fiber laser to ablate material from older hardware and push it into the atmosphere to burn up. I was even encouraged to send the design proposal to NASA who did get back to me, stating the concept was sound but the power requirements were unrealistic. Now my design called for a combination of an RTG, solar panels, and a bank of capacitors. The prototype worked fine (watch styropyro for visuals if need be). What i came to find out is the stockpile of plutonium 238 for RTG'S is very low and NASA has it all ear marked for future missions. So oh well guess we'll just keep doing nothing lol
Why does the transmitted debris dome out perpendicular tot he shield surface? Seems to show non conservation of momentum. Or does the surface actually explode ( as in an angled meteor strike ) and the blow back material conserves the momentum ?
if you look closely you can see the projectile it's self deflecting upwards in the camera frame. that redirection of the main projectile is were the momentum is conserved.
This is kinda crazy because the honeycomb asteroid shield is described almost the exact same way as the honeycomb structure of the hull of the Spirit of Fire in the book that came out like 10+ years ago and when I seen it in action it was how I had imagined it in my head as a kid 😅
Great content, crisp audio, although I prefer some kind of low volume ambient music in the background to keep myself from getting asleep during long narration. Anyway good job, I liked it! 👍
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
It's a bit counterintuitive, but I like how the solution seems not to be some new exotic material but rather just a clever combination of guardian angles.
Literally the best type of innovation!
That pun, I was shot through the heart, and turned it.
Unironically that's more or less what tanks tried to do in ww2 and later on. Angles are huge when protecting something since some of the energy is deflected - but if used badly they take too much space
100% that's what they need to be nicknamed.
Really pulled a fast one with that pun :)
That "honeycomb" shield is such a cool idea, and a beautiful illustration of Newton's 3rd law. Like... no, we can't just *stop* the projectile; but there's no reason we can't cleverly (and destructively -- but strategically so, akin to crumple zones on modern car bumpers) redirect its energy back on itself and away from the goods!
...or like in some martial arts... using the opponent's energy against them. It is in truth not an impenetrable barrier, but a true deflector. Now imagine some material as a rapidly spinning -disk- *CONE.* What then?
@@ExtantFrodo2 There is no way you could spin the cone fast enough to matter. Even if you could spin up your shield to 100,000 RPM (approaching the limits of feasibility for current material science), from the projectile's point of view, it would still be basically stationary. So the impact would be very similar to what was demonstrated with the angled plate. You would also need a double layer of spinners, and whatever mechanism is doing the spinning since the protected area of each one would be a circle, you'd need the second layer to cover the gaps in the first. That is to say nothing of the added complexity and weight of such a system.
If you could some how spin up a cone of material to the required speed, that would make for some very interesting interactions. I suspect that the cone would become more effective than an unmoving plate since the spinning would be bringing more material into the path of the projectile than a stationary plate of the same thickness would, effectively making the spinning plate thicker. That's just a guess though; hyper velocity impacts are frequently unintuitive and behave very differently than "normal" impacts so I doubt that we will ever see this particular thought experiment demonstrated outside of computer simulations, if even in that.
That is not Newton's third law. Newton's third law will only say the same force will be applied to the asteroid as the shield(because of which it evaporates)
@@resurgam_b7 You offer some good thoughts on this matter. In addition the spinning center of the cone would be as ineffective as stationary material would be since it would not be presenting the same "thickening" aspect. The overlap you mentioned would have to encompass those areas as well.
@@ExtantFrodo2 That's a good point, I wasn't even considering the center of the cone and the attachment point. I imagine it would be fairly catastrophic for the spacecraft if the bolt holding the ludicrously fast spinning mass were to suddenly disintegrate from an impact directly to it.
Come to think of it, a hit anywhere on a shield like that would almost certainly unbalance the cone and cause it begin oscillating horribly if it didn't just break up immediately. Then you would get hyper velocity cone fragments to deal with in addition to the micro-meteors you were already facing. All in all a bad day for the astronauts I'd say!
Of course Texas has an asteroid-gun-of-doom! Now that I think of it, it would be more surprising for them not to have one!
Whole else but Texans would you trust to build a giant gun that fires projectiles at the speed of space?
"You can't just shoot a hole into the surface of Mars"
Texas: Watch me.
Haha meteor gun go br
Houston we have a problem
@@ShaunCheah Tennessee or Kentucky?
The stracture shown in 9:10 is the lattice stracture of Euplectella aspergillum , a deep sea sponge. What is remarkable about it is that it is the optimal lattice stracture that results in the strongest form given a specific weight.
why cook up an array of complicated computers, needing to make complex calculations and model hundreds of structures, when nature has been doing so for literal billions of years? All that computational-result wealth of knowledge, out there for us to take!
@@Apostate_ofmind Because it's not as magical and calculation intensive as you seem to believe
@@tonylee1667 you have no idea what i believe.
@@Apostate_ofmind Neither do you
@@tonylee1667 well, im not here professing what you think, so youre wrong there.
Im literally a biologist, so i know what im talking about, so you managed to be wrong on three things at the same time:
1) you dont know what i think
2) i dont think its magic, i literally know how the science of it works
3) and no, it IS calculation intensive, its just being outsourced to billions of years and countless organisms and deaths (rewriting iterations). Every enzyme is a 'gate', every Dna and Rna 'strings'. Every organism is a supercompex 'computer', and every niche is a 'server' and every community a connection of 'servers', and then you have whole ecosystems that are even a metastructure on top of that.
Literally if someone would have the competence to appreciate the complexity, it would be a biologist like me.
I don't know what is cooler, the fact that the testing resulted in an ability to cause the impactor to flip a U turn, or that their death gun is pointed at UT's stadium. 🤣
As an Austinite, I love the casual threat of asteroids coming from A&M...
Oh man I don't know what I'd do with it, but I want one...
Go the classic myth busters route and explode a chicken with it
You could print that with carbon fibre/nylon filament
@@ocelotmadness6287 he meant the mother of all guns
@@Kaynsteinthis caused me to remember that St. Barbara is the Patron Saint of Ballistics.
I'd love to see the Slow-Mo Guys collab with that testing facility as well.
I think they're just down the road!
As much as it hurts me to say, I don't think there would be much use of it. The camera they use at the facility is far better than any of the Phantom cameras, achieving higher framerate/resolution. It could be a fun video with Gav going over the technology and challenges of filming something like this and get real deep into it with a longer 2nd channel video though.
@@olekaarvaag9405 Definitely! It's really fun to listen to Gavin nerd out about camera technology.
@@douglasboyle6544 15s away!
Their V2511 can’t go as fast as this needs to be.
love the "Come And Take It" decal on the gun, very Texas in a light hearted way for once
Your content really has an incredible consistency of quality. I look forward to every one of your videos!
Also, I found the easter egg. I know I should have seen it coming, but you got me. :)
What's an easter egg?
@@mumiemonstret An egg used to symbolize the Easter holiday.
@@mumiemonstret But besides being a symbol of Christianity, the term grew to denote a particular hidden element in Western media production, intended for dedicated community to discover on their own. Eastern eggs are typically intended leftovers in a production that is sufficiently large, expensive, or manned, sometimes as a joke, as a reference, as a homage, or for marketing purposes (and building up a hype). It largely depends on the audience commitment (you don't use them in a video intended for casual viewers or grandmas) and the solemnity of the product (you don't use them while explaining Holocaust). In the recent times Eastern eggs are done for the sake of it, most commonly in movies, cartoons, video games, as well as short documentaries such as this one, because it would be weird to do so in a piece of music, for example. Normally the media itself has to be multidimensional and possess a multitude of sensory streams, so anything that has a moving image is basically quite compatible with the concept.
@@milanstevic8424 OK, so basically an easter egg is something that flies over my and other casual viewers heads? An in-joke?
@@mumiemonstret yes, probably. I, for one, don't even care. that's probably something only his long-time viewership understands. maybe it's something cool, but I don't have the time to even pretend to be interested lol
I don't know what's more impressive, the gun was able to shoot a projectile hard enough to turn it into a "shooting star" or the slowmo footage of it.
I thought the same until the Whipple shield came up, that is such an interesting and ingenious design, just wow
Though excellent all around, I especially love the easter eggs James inserts. Even with serious subject matter that personality is always there.
If they didn't have test footage I'd never believe it worked so well! It's such a simple idea, elegant in its execution, and ripe for further innovations. With all that internal space, setting up systems to detect exactly where impacts occur and how much energy they carry is almost trivial!
I was so not expecting my college to show up in a video! I saw the academic building in the intro, and as soon as you said "Texas A&M University" I almost jumped out of my seat lol. Gig 'em, Aggies!
And of course we pointed it at the teasips lol
Gig'em, but stop by Dudley's first.
With all the new engineering students more and more of this stuff will pop up. It would be super cool if a&m becomes known nationwide for their engineering program like Georgia tech or MIT
5:30 Dude in the back of the room didn't even flinch. He's the steely-eye missile man of the group.
You’re missing something. Holding a vacuum on the target side of the gun also greatly increases the projectile speed since there is no gas pressure buildup in the barrel between the projectile and target.
Well, vacuum is really nothing but absence of pressure. You'd get the exact same thing in space, anyway.
@@niklaskoskinen123 You’re right but that wasn’t my point. His explanation of how they were attaining the projectile speeds in the gun was incomplete is all I was saying.
@@jimk8520 Fair enough. It's all about what you are comparing it to, though. Shooting a gun in space won't reach the same speeds, and this video will explain why.
The target was in a vacuum chamber? He went through that including adding pressure to stimulate upper atmosphere?
@Jim K Exactly. The target getting to sit in a vacuum much as it would in space is a free bonus - the barrel in front of the projectile would be under vacuum ANYWAY, for the reason you state, regardless of whether or not you want to study space stuff.
This channel is so underrated, it’s actually shocking it’s not a multi million sub channel like Tom Scott
I love the content you are going to go to millions of subscribers soon. AS a creator I am always learning from you.
Great thumbnail as well.
@@Thebreakdownshow1 Thanks! I'm most pleased they let me keep the plastic test sample - it's on my desk where it receives lots of weird questions.
@@AtomicFrontier That is so cool, When they let you keep such things you know you have made it as a edutainer lol
@@AtomicFrontier I was hoping they'd let you! Talk about a good coffee table conversation starter...
don't lie to him please
JAMES !!!! You are upping the standards on this kind of content AND sponsorships ? My goodness, how are people meant to compete ?!? :D
Awesome video. Micrometeorite impacts are going to be one of the most critical aspects of future space operations. whether it's armoring our satellites this century or going to another star half a millenia from now
Or killing eachother due to political reasons, in space!
A space station's windows being cracked by microscopic space debris is the most terrifying thing I've ever heard
It shouldn't be - it's not like it would disintegrate as a whole (it's a layered construction) and small hole wouldn't depresurize space station like in some movies. It's like draining a pool through a small hole. It takes a lot of time.
@@petrkubena yeah but it will still be scary and also when the meteorite punches through the glass and your behind it wouldn’t you be feeling some pain
I love to see the amount of research that goes into protecting astronauts (and their ice cream)
"Meteoroid and Debris Protection" was about 2% of the Space Station's budget (I worked on that project). It has the "Whipple shields" described in the video to protect the crew modules and pressure tanks. The now Space Force tracks dead satellites and debris in low orbit, mostly with radar. If a bigger piece looks like it will come too close, the Station moves out of the way. Windows not only have covers when not being used, but have four layers of glass. Losing a window would be a catastrophic loss of pressure.
Some stuff just doesn't need protection. The solar arrays have been punctured multiple times, but they are so thin stuff just flies through. There are thousands of solar cells, so losing a few to impact damage isn't a big deal.
I had heard of these 2 stage guns and never understood why they did that. Thank you!
Dude, you make amazing videos. As someone your age who would love to do this, please don't stop making videos. You have serious talent!
5:40 to put that 63394 joules of energy into perspective, penetration of human skin requires about 80 joules (to penetrate bone it is only about 28 joules). Lower density mostly water based flesh protects bones.
Wow! a) way more energy than I though, and b) bone is surprisingly fragile. Thanks for sharing!
additional fun fact I know thanks to airsoft, it ony requires about 1 to 2 joules to 'break' skin. as in, to impact hard enough to cause a superficial wound.
isnt that a typo? really 80?
@@ologhai8559 E=1/2*m*v^2. A 1kg (2.2lbm) mass traveling a bit under 13m/s (45.5 koh, 41.5fps, 28.3 mph) would probably hurt a decent bit.
Other interesting reference in this case, the average energy of a .50 BMG bullet is 20,000 joules. And it is already called an anti-material munition 😅
The come and take it sticker at 4:00 is just perfect.
Nice to see you survived the trip haha. Sponsors ahoy! Great vid as always
6:34 nice error code :p
edit: woah that honeycomb shield design is really cool, the premise sounds about as physically sound as pulling the wagon you're sitting in, but it actually turns the debris around!
That's one of the few guns that is beneficial to humanity. The honeycomb shielding is just brilliant.
Title: Firing the worlds fastest gun
Most interesting bit: We can design walls that turn explosions around.
Tried changing the title to that, RUclips didn't like it :( . Guess it stays as a bonus for anyone who actuallt watches the whole thing
@@AtomicFrontier very sad face
Tried it again with the thumbnail and seems to be going better (knock wood). If you ever run into me irl let me grab you a coffee :)
@@AtomicFrontier instead of a coffee, can I request a video on the science being done by indigenous people in North America, properly known as Turtle Island? I dunno if this topic fits into your channel, but indigenous land management on Turtle Island is an extremely interesting topic, like burning down a forest to save it.
"This is a real-life asteroid impact crater."
*Proceeds to explain how it's not an asteroid impact crater in the slightest.
YOUR BOY HAS BEEN SPONSORED WOOOOOOO!!! I love the Map-Men-styled funnery at the end, very well executed!
The "Come And Take It" stencil on the side with the gun's silhouette at 4:01 is based as hell
As a Texas A&M Former Student, it brings a happy tear to my eye knowing that the projectile cannon is pointed towards Texas’s campus. Shoot varsity’s horns off!
So this is kind of the equivalent of spaced armor for tanks. Interesting. I really like the honeycomb and how it somehow turns the impact
I'm so happy i found this! Was reading up on spacecraft micrometeor shielding and just couldnt comprehend it from words alone. Thank you!
Wow what a great explainer you are! I really had consecutive eureka moments throughout the video! Great work!
Easily the most charming Squarespace ad i've ever seen, you deserve that dough!!
Dude this video is so slept on, when you showed the honeycomb thing and how you explained it was really satisfying.
That was super cool! I loved the slo-mo shots, and the projector presentation!
Also that ad was hilarious haha.
Cool video! I think you did a great job. I came into this knowing little to nothing about asteroid shields and left knowing the physics of how they work and the challenges they face. Thank you!
I am mentioning that the particle exiting at right angles is called normalizing of the projectile, as defense departments spent money trying to improve weapons design through designing projectiles that normalize and go through armor. Awesome video:)
This may be the first video that takes a huge shot out of The Expanse and defensive measures vs projectiles. Really awesome vid.
You have no idea how much I have wanted a good video about this whole process. It's like you surgically hit the exact nerve ending I have had an itch on for well over a decade. My only gripe is that this is not the first ten minutes of an 8 hour long documentary, but that would be a bit much to ask for.
4:48 I feel like that is glossed over. Surely the camera need a lot of light. Like A LOT of light. Hell, I could watch an 8 hour documentary on just the camera alone.
Amazing video! The quality just keeps on improving on this channel
Really amazing video, such a fascinating topic you would never think about!
That gun is intense. I like that you showed how it works. And that slow-mo footage was beautiful. Good stuff.
It's not even the biggest such gun. The largest indoor one is between Chattanooga and Nashville, at an Air Force test range: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AEDC_Range_G
The largest one is slower but a much bigger barrel, the HARP gun now at the Army Yuma proving grounds, in Arizona: api.army.mil/e2/c/images/2016/08/22/447843/original.jpg
I'm confused as to how this channel doesn't have 1M subs yet, it's great
Fantastic and fascinating! I didn't foresee the idea of using angled shields to turn the debris or projectile. You learn something new every day! Thank you!
Love you're videos. I've been subbed since the first time I saw you probably 3 years ago and I'm amazed you don't have more subscribers, you've had the same production quality all this time
"Never Gonna Shoot Your Stars" I haven't heard that one before :)
It reminds me of tanks. The tank rounds experience what's called normalization, this is where an incoming round hitting slopped armor deviates into the armor a bit, this effect can be amplified with a soft nose cone on the projectile and plates with higher hardness normalize less due to less digging. That's why I often armor applique added by troops was less effective because any issue was being normalized
Love to see my school on this channel! Great work man! Interesting video as always!
This channel is absurdly underrated, TURN TO PAGE THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY FOUR
These shield designs remind me of tank armor
Pretty sure that it will eventually be used on tanks, if not already. Many technologies that were initially developed for space ended up finding earth-based applications.
We either get lighter tank armor for the same protection, or better armouring for the same weight. It could translate into higher speed, longer driving range, and/or fuel savings. Who knows? I'll leave it to the engineers but it's fun to ponder about :)
@@lamdelmundo8492 sort of, some composite armour relies on the projectile hitting it deflecting in the way shown in this video.
Albeit since the velocity is lower, the effect is not quite as strong.
This has to be one of the most underrated educational channels on RUclips
I'm very impressed with your narration and clean, sensation free footage. A couple memes here and there seal the deal. Good work!
Great video. I've been watching a few of the last videos and these are really worthy of subscribing.
8:53 Mindblowing. And that honeycomb structure is fractal, it can be scaled to any size. This has infinite applications.
All I could think watching this was some epic space battles and what kinds of ammunition and armoring they would actually use in the real world.
I love the little tibit about TAMU having the barrel aimed at UT's memorial stadium
Very interesting how the final solution is similar in spirit to a military tank's spaced armor. Both problems are so similar, in so many ways. High speed projectile, can't make armor too heavy. Solution, space and slant the armor.
True, but kinetic anti tank weapons have high mass and density which can take a beating by armor, where as space debris has high velocity but low mass, making spaced and sloped armor much more effective due to shattering. But you are right, the principles are the same
5:22 Great to see how enthusiastic the team are!
Another great video!
Thanks!
also LoL
That Ad was funny and your Captain name was funny as well.
We went from putting a guy in a tin can to putting guys in a honeycomb can. Now thats what I call progress!
i really like the way you are enthiuastic about new tech, nice video !
Excellent job, James!
I wasn't aware of how the projectiles come out the other side on an angle, but being an enthusiast of stuff like tanks, I have wondered about thinner armor that consists of alternating directions of plates with an interior structure similar to thick-walled cardboard, taking the advantages of both spaced and angled armor. It's interesting to see that a similar sort of thing has been trialled for spaceflight!
Just stumbled upon your HVI lab & it's noodley appendages... Liked, subscribed & rang the bell!
Was that 15 million G?!???!!
Fantastic description of HDPE vs UHMWPE failure mode in solid block form.
I really enjoyed this video, loved the Snape edit as well
Love your videos! Your work is showing a steady improvement in quality. Since I expect you to continue this progress, it's practically guaranteed that you'll have to say the word "debris" again somewhere down the line. Probably wanna double-check the pronunciation before that happens :)
The error code at ~6:30 was brilliant. Got me
Ever since I learned about light gas guns, I have no idea why railgun was ever considered to be a good idea.
Challenging Tom Scott in information density, Veritasium in writing, Vsauce in pacing, and now the man is taking on the Slo-Mo Guys. He‘s speedrunning RUclips lordship.
As someone living in Austin, I have never been more glad that the space between here and A&M does not consist of vacuum.
At some point in the past I read a sci-fi story that had something similar to that final design. It wasn't exactly the same, but basically the hull of the ship was made out of two plates with a matrix inside that decreased weight but provided similar protection. Wish I could recall the name of the book.
I guess it's not surprising, contemporary science-fiction authors tend to draw from the same general zeitgeist that scientists themselves do, since feasibility is what separates science fiction from science fantasy.
This high velocity asteroid gun is strikingly similar to SmarterEveryDay's baseball cannon. I love mad scientists
That Error code from the camera at 6:33 is actually a youtube video ! Incredible what went on behind the scenes !
Awesome Video! Also Never Gonna Shoot Your Stars was a nice easter egg :)
So that big gun is basically a giant air gun. That honey comb structure is even more amazing
Wow, I wonder if this could be used as lightweight bulletproof body armor!
Good to see a contingency plan in place in case the Longhorns breach containment
Lmao
I love how much the part at 9:00 sounds like a shit post while also being ingenious. Love your videos!
Every tank designer is taking note of this video.
When i was in school one of my physics professors showed us a picture of a window on the ISS with cracks and a lg gouge. Scary enough on its own but when he explained itd been caused by a fleck of paint from an old booster, satellite etc... that was calculated to be just shy of a centimeter across really brought home how fast and dangerous debris up there is. For my masters i built and described a debris de-orbiting platform that used a 1kw fiber laser to ablate material from older hardware and push it into the atmosphere to burn up. I was even encouraged to send the design proposal to NASA who did get back to me, stating the concept was sound but the power requirements were unrealistic. Now my design called for a combination of an RTG, solar panels, and a bank of capacitors. The prototype worked fine (watch styropyro for visuals if need be). What i came to find out is the stockpile of plutonium 238 for RTG'S is very low and NASA has it all ear marked for future missions. So oh well guess we'll just keep doing nothing lol
Why does the transmitted debris dome out perpendicular tot he shield surface? Seems to show non conservation of momentum. Or does the surface actually explode ( as in an angled meteor strike ) and the blow back material conserves the momentum ?
if you look closely you can see the projectile it's self deflecting upwards in the camera frame. that redirection of the main projectile is were the momentum is conserved.
I love that this intimidating high tech contraption is actually just a big cannon.
That dead pixel on your camera made my heart drop
This Chanel is insanely underated
It's like a retro reflector of space debris
it is like it doesn't penetrate it just pushes the material out of the way, was that plasma at the end. gosh that was cool
9:30 "make room for more useful payloads"
100% agree 😏
Really brilliant video, thanks dude 🖖🏻
I liked the part where Rick Astley was inside the tesseract
I like how "astronaut ice cream" is listed as "useful payload" even though it is never sent into space because it's too crumbly.
I guess the camera just runs out of short term memory and can take them way faster than it can write them to any other memory.
This is kinda crazy because the honeycomb asteroid shield is described almost the exact same way as the honeycomb structure of the hull of the Spirit of Fire in the book that came out like 10+ years ago and when I seen it in action it was how I had imagined it in my head as a kid 😅
Oh my god im about to binge every video you've made
Exciting! See you at the end of it!
@@AtomicFrontier i fell in love with physics a few years ago and i am so happy i stumbled upon your channel! I will definitely be sticking around
Great content, crisp audio, although I prefer some kind of low volume ambient music in the background to keep myself from getting asleep during long narration.
Anyway good job, I liked it! 👍