Errymath: August 2017

Tank Biathlon Results

First time we have knowingly seen 9K333 "Verba" Russia latest MANPAD in Syria

Royal Thailand Navy Documentary

Russian Air Show - MAKS 2017

Incredible 360 footage captures ‘Russian Knights’ riding through the skies

New China TV - People's Liberation Army 90th Parade 2017 : Full Military Assets Segment

Video diary of the International Army Games – 2017

Indian Army Tanker Mandeep Singh diving a T-90 Ferrari

The 7 strangest things the Curiosity rover beamed back from Mars

1. Dust devils
Curiosity captured this amazing footage of dust devils whirling spectacularly on Mars as summer winds blew across the Red planet. Dust devils form as a result of sunshine warming the ground, causing the convective rising of air.

The 7 strangest things the Curiosity rover beamed back from Mars (PHOTOS/VIDEOS)

NASA

It’s five years to the day since NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover touched down on the surface of Mars – a staggering 248 million kilometers (154 million miles) from Earth.

Curiosity has many a space nerd hooked to its updates, providing huge quantities of images and data to trawl through, and inspiring endless speculation over the Red Planet’s features (and inhabitants).
To mark Curiosity’s five years roaming our nearest planetary neighbor, RT.com takes a look back at some of the strangest images it beamed back to Earth.

2. Bone-shaped rocks

In 2014, Curiosity set pulses racing with this incredible image reminiscent of a thigh bone. NASA was quick to dismiss such ideas, saying it likely shows rocks sculpted by wind or water erosion.

3. Star destroyer

This Curiosity image of its rocky Martian surroundings prompted UFO enthusiasts to claim it as evidence of an alien spacecraft on Mars. Funny how alien craft are eerily similar to those thought up by movie writers here on Earth!

4. Monster on Mars?

The rover’s mission is to study Mars and determine if it hosts – or ever hosted – life. This photo of dusty, jagged rocks looks pretty innocuous at first glance, but some eagle-eyed observers claim it clearly shows a ‘space crab’ lurking in the shadows. One Mars exploration fanpage on Facebook even suggested it bore an eerie resemblance to the creepy facehuggers from the Alien movies.

5. The Coffin

Aliens don’t bury their dead – apparently, they just leave them in coffins on Mars’ surface for all eternity. At least that’s what was suggested when this oblong shape was snapped by Curiosity in late
2014.

6. Itself

Curiosity channeled its own narcissistic celebrity with a series of images last year. The Red Planet selfie, looking somewhat like a holiday snap, comprises of 60 images taken while drilling into rock.

7. The breasted alien

A raw image taken by the curiosity rover got the attention of many UFO fans who claimed to have spotted an alien “woman with breasts and long hair” who is “attentively watching” from afar.

The Star Destroyer
Spotted by UFO enthusiast Scott C. Waring this ‘Star Destroyer’, he claims is 2.5 to 3 metres in length so, “it probably only held a few passengers." Funny how alien craft are eerily similar to those

Alien woman with breasts

Martian women also have breasts apparently. At least that’s according to the good people at UFO Sightings Daily, though they are torn as to whether it is a living, breathing ‘woman’ or a statue

The Space Crab

“They will not tell the truth about MARS.” Exclaims the description on the Facebook group that discovered this gem. We don’t think they will either.

The Coffin

Aliens don’t bury their dead, apparently they just leave them in coffins on Mars's surface for all eternity.

Martian dust devils

Curiosity Rover captured this amazing footage of dust devils whirling spectacularly on Mars as summer winds blew across the Red planet.

Itself

Curiosity channelled its own narcissistic celebrity with a series of images last year. The Red Planet selfie, thought to be the first of its kind, comprises of 60 images taken while drilling into rock

The Eagle Prime: Incredible 16ft fighting megabot unveiled

At first glance, you might mistake this enormous robot for a character from the latest Transformers blockbuster.

But the 16 foot (five metre) tall machine is a robot called Eagle Prime that is ready to take on Japan in the Megabots Giant Robot Dual league.

An incredible video has been released which shows the Eagle Prime in action ahead of the dual - which will be the world's first giant robot battle - taking place this month.

At first glance, you might mistake this enormous robot for a character from the latest Transformers blockbuster. But the 16 foot (five metre) tall machine is a robot called Eagle Prime that is ready to take on Japan in the Megabots Giant Robot Dual league

The robot has been created by San Francisco-based MegaBots, who set up the Giant Robot Dual league in 2015.

On its website, MegaBots said: 'MegaBots uses cutting-edge robotics technology to create the giant piloted fighting robots of science fiction, videogames and movies.

'These robots fight in epic-scale arena combat the likes of which the world has never seen before.'

The Eagle Prime stands at 16 feet (five metres tall), weighs 12 tons, and has 430 horsepower.

A human operator sits within the 'head' of the humanoid robot, controlling its movements.

Despite its enormous size, Eagle Prime is faster than you might think.

In the video, the enormous robot can be seen opening giant garage doors, quickly manouvering corners, demolishing piles of barrels and even blasting targets with its paintball cannon.

MegaBots said: 'As the robots battle, armour panels shear off and litter the field, smoke and sparks pour out of the chassis, massive robotic limbs tear off, and robots crumple to the ground until only one is left standing.'

In 2015, MegaBots challenged Japan to a giant robot dual, and a team of experts from the country quickly accepted.

The Eagle Prime robot stands at 16 feet (five metres tall), weighs 12 tons, and has 430 horsepower

A human operator sits within the 'head' of the humanoid robot, controlling its movements during the battle

Japan's robot is called Kurata.

In 2015, the team revealed an early version of the robot, that included a gun capable of shooting 6,000 BB bullets a minute.

But since, the Japanese team has not released any information or images of the machine that will take part in the dual against the US.

MEET JAPAN'S KURATAS

Kuratas can be operated using a 'Master-Slave system' where users control the robot's movements from outside using any device with a 3G network.

It weighs 9,000 pounds and is controlled by a pilot in the cockpit or remotely using a smartphone or tablet.

They can also step inside the suit to control its movements in the same way as exoskeletons are used for fictional characters such as Iron Man.

Overall, the robot has around 30 hydraulic joints which the pilot moves using motion control. It comes in 16 colors, including black and pink.

Currently Kuratas is not capable of walking, but is able to drive at 6mph (10 km/h)

It can also be fitted with a futuristic weapons system, including a gun capable of shooting 6,000 BB bullets a minute, which fires when the pilot smiles.

'Automatic alignment allows you to lock on your enemy target. Kuratas will not allow any targets to escape,' the company writes.

'With the alignment set appropriately the system will fire BBs when the pilot smiles.'

Realizing that there may be a flaw with this system of opening fire, a video warns the pilot against smiling too much while operating the Kuratas weaponry.

However, there is another major caveat.

The robot is advertised as a kit, which means whoever buys it will also have to put it together.

In May, Chinese robotics company GREATMETAL also announced that it too was joining the battle, unveiling its massive 'Monkey King' robot to take on the US and Japan.

The quadrupedal, single-seat machine takes on the form of a monkey and weighs more than 8,000 pounds (four tonnes) – and a video has suggested that the robot is equipped with a rotating head.

The enormous robots have several cameras on the exterior, allowing the human controller inside to change its movements

As the robots battle, armour panels shear off and litter the field, smoke and sparks pour out of the chassis, massive robotic limbs tear off, and robots crumple to the ground until only one is left standing

Its creator, Shiqian Sun, said it took about two months to complete to this point, New Atlas reported.

Although China is gearing up for battle, MegaBots is still deciding whether to allow the Monkey King to join the competition.

A specific date for the battle has not yet announced, but MegaBots says it will be this month.

The Eagle Prime robot looks very similar to many of the machines featured in the Transformers blockbusters

THE MONKEY KING

Chinese robotics company GREATMETAL has unveiled its robot to take on America's MegaBots and Japan's Kuratas.

Called the Monkey King, this robot is able to fight while on two legs and also on all-fours.

Chinese robotics company GREATMETAL has unveiled its robot to take on America's MegaBots and Japan's Kuratas

The quadrupedal, single-seat machine takes on the form of a monkey and weighs more than 8,000 pounds (4 tonnes).

And a leaked video has suggested that the robot is equipped with a rotating head.

USS Gerald R. Ford - Landing and Launching of Aircraft

On July 28, 2017, a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter became the first fixed-wing airplane to land on and launch from the Navy’s new aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.

The Super Hornet belonged to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23, based at Patuxent River in Maryland. Lt. Cmdr. Jamie Struck, call sign “Coach,” flew the two-seat fighter on the historic sortie.
The launch in particular is significant because, until recently, the Navy wasn’t sure Ford‘s catapult would work properly. The July 28 takeoff could help to restore some confidence in the system. “I get chills when I think of the millions of hours of work it took to engineer, develop and manufacture this ship and its revolutionary systems,” Struck said in a Navy release.

Ford is the first carrier to feature an electromagnetic catapult instead of a traditional steam catapult. The Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System is more compact, reliable and flexible than the older-style catapult design is.

“The launching system is designed to expand the operational capability of Ford-class carriers, providing the Navy with capability for launching all current and future carrier air wing platforms — lightweight unmanned to heavy strike fighters,” the Navy explained in a release.
But in 2014, the Navy discovered that EMALS, designed by General Atomics, puts too much stress on warplanes in their heaviest configurations — including Super Hornets carrying external fuel tanks.

Forget ‘God-Damned Steam,’ the U.S. Navy’s Digital Catapult Actually Works

Pres. Donald Trump famously mocked EMALS. “It sounded bad to me,” Trump said during a May 2017 speech aboard Ford. “Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out.”

“And I said — and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said what system are you going to be — ‘Sir, we’re staying with digital.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. [We’re] going to God-damned steam,’ the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.”

But the Navy stood by EMALS. “We were confident since the day that the issue was uncovered that it was solvable,” George Sulich, EMALS integrated program team lead, said in a Navy release. “The beauty of the system is that issues such as these can be accomplished with software updates instead of major hardware changes to machinery.”

Sure enough, the Navy tweaked EMALS’s software and conducted 71 test launches on land with VX-23 Super Hornets carrying 480-gallon fuel tanks under their wings. The tests proved the fighter “can launch without exceeding stress limits on the aircraft,” the Navy reported on July 24, 2017.

Four days later, the Super Hornet launched from Ford. That takeoff involved an F/A-18F without wing tanks — in other words, in a light configuration. The Navy plans on waiting until 2019 — when Ford will be preparing for her first deployment — to update the ship’s EMALS with the newly-written code allowing heavier launches.