Comments on: Solar-powered 3D sand-printer

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think this is a cool invention and idea. Hopefully in the future more printers and electronics have the ability to use solar as a power source.

By: Jake0748

Jake0748 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I like how he had to put the electronic bits under that silver tent thingie.

On the whole I’d say awesome. :)

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The simplicity of the design is awesome. It’s a low budget version of the makerbot. I also think the space applications for this would be awesome, if the right atmospheric conditions exist.

By: dansen

dansen — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

the simplicity of this thing is amazing. I also think the space applications for his device can be really interesting, given the correct atmospheric conditions.

By: cory

cory — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If this thing could manufacture its own solar panels (and thereby reproduce itself), Grey Goo.

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Very, very cool, creative, and artistic. Genius. I’ve made glass before by melting sand in a propane-fired furnace, and that takes some _heat_. I think I’d want a little more protective gear than socks over my hands… XO I also think I’d make the “office” big enough to get my sweaty ass out of the sun too!

I hope terrorists don’t find out about this device; solar death ray in 3…2…1… (Of course, you’d have to get your target to sit really still while you set the Fresnel lenses up over their head…)

By: victorvodka

victorvodka — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

drop it on mars and build us a dubai to move into before we get there in space ships.

By: CountZero

CountZero — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t know about Grey Goo, but glass Von Neumann machines sound really cool. I’d love that bowl he made, a nice work of art.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Solar brick maker. Have a few of these running for a couple weeks and you could build a house!

By: anansi133

anansi133 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Even just crafting another Fresnel lense for the mark II model would be a nifty achievement.

Using solar power to smelt ore for a steel frame would be another machine. it’s having a complex ecology that keeps it from becoming grey goo.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It seems like it would be possible to make an automated one of these that would build glass walls out of the sand. You could build a village in the middle of no-where, although really, why would you want to?

I thought the term “Gray Goo” was only applicable to self-replicating nano-machines. This thing is WAY too macro for that.

By: forgeweld

forgeweld — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

How utterly delightful. Big bonus points for precise moving parts in a sandy environment continuing to work.

By: MarkM

MarkM — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Surely it’s the most romantic place to do it, but I’m not quite sure why this is being done in the Sahara.

By: moosehunter

moosehunter — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

mars, seriously- want to move to mares in a few dcecades? send a few thousand of these, and use them to build buildings. and if you can make glass, you should be able to make sintered bricks,( kiln fired dry pressed clay/sand bricks) the possibilities are nearly endless. and to pay for it all? send a few to the moon, to make a 500 mile wide glittering coke logo- visible from the earth-

a romantic thought, some summer night, you S/O on your arm, and above you the full moon twinkles “Drink Coke”

By: ackpht

ackpht — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

He built a solar cutter.

Depends on what you feed it. Sand, it’s a fuser. Glass, it’s a melter. Metal, it’s a welder. Paper, wood, plastic, it’s an ignition source. Meat, it’s a barbecue.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nasa/Space X get on this! Surely the moon with max atmosphere temp of 390K 242F 117C and oceans of sand would be prime for this. No wind. No atmosphere. No Neighbors. Lots of sun. Lots of time.

X prize for this. x prize for the best purpose for this.

I call glass highways/railways across the desert!
Mirrors to increase the albedo back to where we need it.

anyone out there care to calculate what rate this thing was producing glass?

n cc’s of glass per hour per machine x usable light x n machines =

By: ackpht

ackpht — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Not that precise- skateboard wheels and belt drives. But a good match for a hostile environment. I’d add a programmable shutter.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wow – I just came back from the Royal College of Art show where this video and the actual machine is on display. It’s on for the rest of this week I think, and it’s a great show anyway!

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Extreme absence of vegetation?

By: AllanX

AllanX — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Make it fully autonomous and mobile, have a large onboard dataset of elaborate and aesthetically pleasing models, and set it loose in the desert to leave behind an endless trail of gallery-quality glass art.

By: Dewi Morgan

Dewi Morgan — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, but automating that is just a small matter of programming.

In fact, given that dust buildup was one of the main problems suffered by the Mars rovers, you might not need to actually make a sand-dusting-thing – could just wait for static and wind to do their thing.

By: The Thompson Five

The Thompson Five — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Increase the area of the panels and lenses, build an army of them, send them to Mars to build us a glass city.

By: lazyopportunist

lazyopportunist — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

sand on a speaker + this = sand-printed-resonant-frequency-oddities!

By: Neural Kernel

Neural Kernel — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A swarm of these things on wheels could stabilize dunes and stop (or at least slow) the Sahara’s spread.

By: avraamov

avraamov — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

…i wonder why he chose Siwa. it’s not that easy to get to…

By: psulli

psulli — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Should be name “Solar ARray Light Amplification ACCessorizer”

By: shadowfirebird

shadowfirebird — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m seeing a swarm of robots crawling over the Sahara leaving behind free glassware — which sounds considerably more facile than I mean it.

By: CognitiveDissident

CognitiveDissident — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes!
Like a farmer in the desert, multiple machines, print bricks in interlocking shapes (like large LEGOs), come back in a month, and reap your harvest at picking time. And build your sun-made crop-buildings!

The absolute opposite of “failure of imagination”.
Blow away the status quo with ingenuity that they cannot ignore.

By: Chentzilla

Chentzilla — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Am I right that each new layer had to be added manually?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

eat from that bowl and your mouth would be full of sand…