Quote:
Originally Posted by tsofian
Also the design specification was to survive and remain operations after being hit by a 30 PSI shock wave. It appears that the vehicles were capable of meeting this requirement.
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docket/arch...geChambers.pdf
30 PSI is enough to destroy reinforced concrete structures. To survive this blast overpressure the vehicle will also need to be able to survive being struck by large high velocity fragments and debris. I wonder ballistic energy the vehicle could survive would be. I doubt it would be the Science Rover's 1100 but I would hazard a guess it will stop most if not all 7.62mm rounds. |
30 PSI is all of 2 atmospheres of pressure. That is a tremendous force applied over a wide area but is still orders of magnitude less than the pressure of a bullet impacts which are measured in hundreds of PSI (for small, soft rounds) to thousands of PSI (for larger, harder rounds). And while in practice it may have needed to survive debris in the development stage it would not have been held to that standard, and mobility requirements may have prevented it from ever reaching that standard.
Look, if you want to handwave a solution, that's fine. But I see no justification for saying that a poorly-documented, proof-of-concept prototype is a viable solution for any practical role. It was designed to explore a concept and see if it was possible, and when you are working that kind of program you abandon anything not absolutely essential to the prime requirements so that you can see if those requirements can be met
at all. You don't worry about bullet-resistance because this vehicle was never meant to be within a thousand miles of anyone who might shoot at it. You don't worry about real off-road capability because driving a hundred ton vehicle over gentle grass while still being able to turn into a tornado shelter is hard enough without giving it the vertical clearance it would need to do what other military vehicles do.
It looks cool. So does a monster truck. That doesn't mean that either would really have much use in a general military capacity.