America Had an Atomic Mecha Warrior Robot | Hacker News Reader

America Had an Atomic Mecha Warrior Robot

orangebeanindiana.com

286 pointsriffraff77 comments

I couldn't imagine how the headline could be accurate, and was expecting to be disappointed, but apart from the lack of legs, the mentioned robot surpassed my expectations.

A little sad that it seemingly ended up being cannibalized at a Nevada test site, but I suppose that's better than being swallowed up in a Dirac sea while having its S² Engine installed.

A little misleading: not a robot per se but more of an armed, treaded vehicle that a person can drive around. Also warrior only in the sense that it would be used to service war aircraft — not actually fight soldiers or whatever.

Cool as hell though nonetheless. Being behind a foot of leaded glass and sealed in that steel and lead cocoon would creep me out. I mean, what if the hydraulics failed and they were unable to get the hatch open?

For the nerd traveller, I highly recommend Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 in Arco, Idaho.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I

In addition to the breeder reactor itself, outside in the parking lot are two remaining experimental nuclear aircraft engines that the robot was to service.

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph241/morris-s2/

> not a robot per se but more of an armed, treaded vehicle that a person can drive around

That's typically what a mecha is. https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/mecha

Mechas always have legs and look humanoid. It's a pretty big stretch calling this thing a mecha.

Okay, then give it more powerful engines, and weapons in the place of arms, and you have the beginnings of one of Keith Laumer's Bolos.

Or one of Steve Jackson's Ogres. Although both Bolos and Ogres were unmanned AI-controlled vehicles.

Nitpick: Bolos weren't unmanned until the Mark XXII. ...And this is why I'm single.

You may want to take a look at the Swedish Stridsvagn 103 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stridsvagn_103): designed for a crew of 2 (a third was later added) where all crew positions can perform all operations.

I don't think it's true that Mecha always have legs.

I'm on mobile and can't look up a better picture, but look for example at the classic tank part of getter robot

https://www.ebay.com/itm/164049621190

Not really. Mecha is abbreviation for mechanical and generally means all types of mechanical objects. Because anime and japanese movies dominatly use the term for giant robots, western people have the misunderstanding that only those are Mecha. Enforced is this picture probably also because of the Mechs in the Battletech/Mechwarrior-Franchise, because people don't understand the difference between mech and mecha.

Also not atomic powered as I would assume from title

If the hydraulics failed there was a jack in the cabin. And you would never operate this thing alone. A massive support team would be around you to handle such emergencies. You would be towed out of the danger zone quickly.

I have been on a tour to INL and got to check out EBR, ATRC (but not ATR) and some ITER project at the time (2009).

The "Warrior" part seems inaccurate. More like Mechanic/Engineer Bot, not intended for combat uses, no?

Well, the forklift mech in Aliens was pressed into combat. Never say never...

Yeah, but they called it a forklift mech, not a Warrior Mech!

> More like Mechanic/Engineer Bot, not intended for combat uses, no?

Something like this would certainly be helpful at Fukashima, wouldn't it?

I am flabbergasted by the apparent lack of serious R&D put into solutions for contaminated sites like that.

The only bit of fiction that I have read that mentions atomic powered bombers is Charlie Stross' excellent A Colder War - where they are armed with Project Pluto style missiles and target the Soviet weakly-godlike entity i.e. (a) Cthulhu.

Strongly recommended.

Link for the curious: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

It's a fast read. Well worth it, too.

Eh, it had the same unglamorous fate as the robot from Evangelion.

Before the pandemic, you could sign up for a tour of the Nevada Test site: https://www.nnss.gov/pages/PublicAffairsOutreach/NNSStours.h...

The tour would get you close to the NERVA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA) test stand and you could see the train tracks and the diesel switchers that would pull the reactor core in and out of the protective bunker dug into the hillside. Maybe if you looked closely, you might be able to find the chassis, assuming the arms were repurposed.

I hope the tours re-open after the pandemic!

Ah, I always liked that ending to Mike Mulligan's Steam Shovel.

Ah yes the 1950s! When we thought we needed nuclear-powered long-range bombers that could stay in the air for months at a time as part of the deterrent. The USAF spent a good $10B 1950's dollars on this concept and funded some incredible reactors like the Aircraft Reactor Experiment [1] and the Heat Transfer Reactor Experiments [2] (which you can see yourself if you're ever driving through Idaho).

The ARE was interesting in that it was the world's first molten salt fueled reactor.

Once Kennedy shut down the propulsion program (because ICBMs had been developed and we didn't need nuclear-powered planes anymore), the reactor expertise from this program at Oak Ridge led directly to the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), which to this very day fuels all the excitement about thorium reactors and molten salt reactors.

Interestingly, China is just about finished building their version of the MSRE, called TMSR-LF1 [3], and is supposed to start testing it in a month or two.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Reactor_Experiment

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion#He...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMSR-LF1

Truly a golden age of absolutely insane nuclear projects, like Project Pluto[1], a proposed nuclear-powered ramjet that could theoretically cruise around for weeks or months before being directed to a target.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto

Pluto looks quite sensible compared to Gnomon and Sundial - 1Gt and 10Gt bombs respectively (yes Gt not Mt):

http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2012/09/12/in-search-of-a-big...

Edit: Fortunately the development of these devices didn't get too far advanced.

One would be remiss not to remember Project Orion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...) and Project Plowshare (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare). :-)

Rumor has it Russia is developing such a system today (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik)

Of course, you never know whether that’s wishful thinking by the Russian and/or US military. The Russians may exaggerate how far they are in order to increase deterrence, and the Americans may exaggerate in order to get the money to get even bigger toys)

> insane nuclear projects

Like LAMPRE, a reactor that used molten plutonium!

https://atomic-skies.blogspot.com/2013/03/burning-metal-part...

The Chinese have been developing it for about a decade now, I think it's the first one to go to production, not just test.

It's definitely a test reactor. You can see some program overview here [1]. This thing that's coming online is the 2020 several MW test reactor, not the 100 MW power demo.

[1] http://irfu.cea.fr/Meetings/seminaires-MSR/4_Programme%20Chi...

It's too bad this wasnt explored further, there could be non-weaponized use cases for a nuclear powered aircraft that can stay in the air for days or months at a time.

As a rule, if a design is deemed too risky to use in times of war, it's probably unsuitable for civilian usage too.

I'm sure there are exceptions, but nuclear aircraft does really not look like it would be one.

If you want to know more about the Beetle prototype, this website [1] has lots more pictures and details about it than OP's article.

Amazing piece of engineering, considering it was the late 50s when it was engineered.

[1] http://cyberneticzoo.com/teleoperators/1958-62-beetle-mobile...

Cybernetic Zoo is one of those sites you can lose an afternoon to.

I thought this article was going to be about Eagle Prime, a $2.5M robot that was designed to actually fight against a japanese one, but ended up getting auctioned off on ebay after the parent company went bankrupt[0]

The japanese robot is pretty cool too: "The vehicle can be "armed" with multiple weapons, such as a 6,000 round per minute twin BB rotary cannon, a "LOHAS" launcher which fires either water bottles[4] or possibly fireworks, and a powered humanoid hand called the "iron crow" that is capable of picking up objects, and is linked to the pilot by "what appears to be a Mattel Power Glove". The main Suidobashi website lists two other "weapons", a "Kuratas Handgun", and a "Pilebunker"."[1]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu2iKse_GUA

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuratas

>>roughly $15 million in 2021

It doesn't say whether this was the whole lifecycle cost or not(design, prototype, build...) but there is no way the DoD could create something like this so cheap today.

Here's a more detailed article transcribed from Popular Science:

http://cyberneticzoo.com/teleoperators/1958-62-beetle-mobile...

It mentions the all important ash tray and cigarette lighter just before discussing the emergency oxygen system.

> It took the Air Force Special Weapons Center three years and $1.5 million (roughly $15 million in 2021).

Anyone else find this amazing? There's no way this would be less than a $500 million project nowadays.

I wonder if this was the idea seed for Liberty Prime, the giant robot in the game Fallout 4?

I keep wondering about MegaBots, which was unabashedly inspired by mecha fiction, but which might've then gone on to inspire more. It was founded in 2014 and debuted its first robot in 2015. Fallout 4 came out in late 2015 as well, so I assume neither knew about the other and they were both influenced by similar prior art.

Liberty Prime first appeared in Fallout 3, which was released in 2008, so it could be possible.

It was the seed for the headline, maybe.

Metal Gear, for that matter.

> It took the Air Force Special Weapons Center three years and $1.5 million (roughly $15 million in 2021) to build this

This price seems very low compared to other government projects.

atomic - bog standard engine

mecha - tracked

warrior - unarmed

robot - has a pilot

a true post factual headline

it's... it's a crane. a crane with two boom and some radiation shielding, which somehow gets called "armor"

It's atomic and warrior by association or job description.

There are some tracked mecha in fiction, but they are usually considered inferior to the walker equivalents.

As far as robot- you've got it there. It's basically a wheeled version of Ripley's power loader from Aliens.

Whereas tracked vehicles would (likely) be superior in practice, due to weight vs load-bearing area issues.

And most cranes don't have manipulator arms.

are you familiar with, idk, the whole felling industry?

Not personally, no. How many degrees of freedom do they need?

http://cyberneticzoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/tele-man...

Yes, but just look at it, that's one of the coolest retro things I've ever seen. It's cool enough that it could go into a video game today. Sorry to say the cool factor legitimizes everything they could put in the headline. That's a beast. You're gonna see that in a Guillermo del Toro film soon.

I like this one better:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28283036

Kinda.

More like a heavily rad shielded vehicle with manipulators for working on atomic aircraft and reactors.

>working on atomic aircraft and reactors.

Crashed ones probably ;)

>>This costly mechanical beast had a single purpose: to service and repair the USAF’s atomic-powered aircraft

Oof, that first picture. If the operator sneezes she's scrambled eggs.

If you can't see the pictures, try this archive link:

https://archive.is/GlPuu

I can just image it being in Anchorage Alaska blasting "For Democracy" over it's speakers.

So close to having a Gundam, so close…

In an alternate future, the Taliban are fighting against mechs now. Or they'd have requisitioned an abandoned one and we'd be having a mech battle.

Sadly the reality is pretty depressing

Probably closer to Zakus. Imagine the US just airdropping a ton of these things into combat.

METAL GEAR!?

Isn't it an "Atomic Mecha Repairman Robot"?

"Death is a preferable alternative to Communism!" -Liberty Prime

it's... Getter-3 from getter robot?

Well I’ll be damned, it’s an actual metal gear

Soviet Mechas in Helsinki 1922. https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipNrktKhhoYNGBcO3jf2ls2o...

Why on earth does Google want me to sign in?

Uhh? To track you?

404

This is of course a mod of Jakub Różalski. I think it was very funny. Unfortunately Reddit did think so and banned me for life. Reddit actually banned half of Helsinki by the IP-address because of this, which was very funny also and to the point.

Is the "Create Link" option more public: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q5SeDkEnvyq6oMnZ8

Yes it seems to be. You can view the picture in incognito node.

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