APOD: A Bucket Wheel Excavator on Earth (2010 Oct 24)

[borealis]

At first I considered this an inappropriate APOD . Now, after some thought, it seems there's more to it than meets the eye. One pic is worth a thousand words.

[mexhunter]

Hi Ann:
A Barbie doll is a very delicate, but for imagination of a child of 10 years old, is not nothing better than to toy with super powers.
However, when these children grow, they are also trapped by the powers of those girls who used very delicate dolls.
Greetings
César

[orin stepanek]

I remember this picture from before. I don't remember if it was on APOD; or if I remember it from somewhere else. I believe it is all right to show it on APOD. For one reason you can see the results of it's digging from orbit. Also; Earth is part of astronomy!
Here is some information on open pit mining. http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/open.htm Whether it is harmful or not probably depends on how the job is done during and after mining operations.

[readm]

It is curious that there is no information on where this photo was taken. APOD always give that information. Did I miss something?

[wtatrmt]

So what? Not a very astronomical photo............

[Chris Peterson]

I remember this picture from before.

Yes, the same image ran on 2006 November 22. I seem to recall it generated some disgruntlement that time, as well.

[Chris Peterson]

It is curious that there is no information on where this photo was taken. APOD always give that information. Did I miss something?

The image was made in Germany.

[Sevenpleides]

The byline under the title states that this site is for photos of the universe. I use this site daily to learn more about astronomy. I am not understanding how this photo pertains. It seems that maybe someone did not have an astronomy photo so they slipped in a substitute. Just like the time with the photo of the "real astronomer" with dancing children.
If we are running out of photos, there are many amateurs now taking excellent photos with digital cameras through their telescopes. Maybe they could submit some photos to you.

[orin stepanek]

I remember this picture from before.

Yes, the same image ran on 2006 November 22. I seem to recall it generated some disgruntlement that time, as well.

Thanks Chris; your right about the disgruntlement. http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 59&start=0

[neufer]

[b]Curious grooves and ridges appear to cross the surface of Pandora.[/b]

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A BWE would be perfect for digging canals on Mars
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031112.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100505.html

A BWE would also be perfect for mining unobtanium on Pandora!

(No doubt the source of all those curious grooves.)

Unobtanium in the film Avatar (2009). Unobtanium is a valuable room-temperature superconductor valued at $20 million a kilo.

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In Greek mythology, Pandora (Πανδώρα, derived from πᾶν "all" and δῶρον "gift", thus "all-gifted", "all-endowed") was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mould her out of earth as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her "seductive gifts". Her other name, inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum, is Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts," up implying "from below" within the earth. According to the myth, Pandora opened a JAR (pithos), in modern accounts sometimes mistranslated as "Pandora's box", releasing all the evils of mankind— although the particular evils, aside from plagues and diseases, are not specified in detail by Hesiod — leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it again. She opened the JAR out of simple curiosity and not as a malicious act.

Ex-JARhead: Col. Miles Quaritch

The myth of Pandora is ancient, appears in several distinct Greek versions, and has been interpreted in many ways. In all literary versions, however, the myth is a kind of theodicy, addressing the question of why there is evil in the world. In the seventh century BC, Hesiod, both in his Theogony (briefly, without naming Pandora outright, line 570) and in Works and Days, gives the earliest literary version of the Pandora story; however, there is an older mention of JARS or urns containing blessings and evils bestowed upon mankind in Homer's Iliad:

• The immortals know no care, yet the lot they spin for man is full of sorrow; on the floor of Zeus' palace there stand two JARS, the one filled with evil gifts, and the other with good ones. He for whom Zeus the lord of thunder mixes the gifts he sends, will meet now with good and now with evil fortune; but he to whom Zeus sends none but evil gifts will be pointed at by the finger of scorn, the hand of famine will pursue him to the ends of the world, and he will go up and down the face of the earth, respected neither by gods nor men.>>

[whatmeworry]

Batteries not included.

[calen]

I can only imagine what this must do to the roadbed. And I can imagine what this monster does to the environment. Just what we need.

[charles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azEvfD4C6ow

[neufer]

It is curious that there is no information on where this photo was taken.
APOD always give that information. Did I miss something?

The image was made in Germany.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

[b][color=#FF0000]40 MW PV Array installed in Waldpolenz, Germany[/color][/b]

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<<Renewable power generators are spread across many countries, and wind power alone already provides a significant share of electricity in some areas: for example, 14 percent in the U.S. state of Iowa, 40 percent in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, and 20 percent in Denmark. Some countries get most of their power from renewables, including Iceland (100 percent), Brazil (85 percent), Austria (62 percent), New Zealand (65 percent), and Sweden (54 percent).

At the end of 2009, worldwide wind farm capacity was 157,900 MW, representing an increase of 31 percent during the year, and wind power supplied some 1.3% of global electricity consumption. Wind power accounts for approximately 19% of electricity use in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland.

As of September 2010, the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plants in the world are the Sarnia Photovoltaic Power Plant (Canada, 80 MW), Olmedilla Photovoltaic Park (Spain, 60 MW), the Strasskirchen Solar Park (Germany, 54 MW), the Lieberose Photovoltaic Park (Germany, 53 MW), the Puertollano Photovoltaic Park (Spain, 50 MW), the Moura Photovoltaic Power Station (Portugal, 46 MW), and the Waldpolenz Solar Park (Germany, 40 MW). Many of these plants are integrated with agriculture and some use innovative tracking systems that follow the sun's daily path across the sky to generate more electricity than conventional fixed-mounted systems.

[rdea]

Several people have commented here that this is not an astronomical picture. True enough, but it's cool anyway. I am surprised that nobody has commented yet that APOD showed this picture (or at least this machine) once before, a few years ago. I have had APOD as my home page for over a decade, so I hardly ever miss one.

[neufer]

Several people have commented here that this is not an astronomical picture.
True enough, but it's cool anyway.

• Definition of ASTRONOMICAL (Webster's Online Dictionary):
  
  • 1. Relating or belonging to the science of astronomy.[Wordnet]
    
    2. Inconceivably large.[Wordnet]
    
    3. Of or pertaining to astronomy; in accordance with the methods or principles of astronomy.[Websters]
    
    4. Being enormous, gigantic, colossal, immense or huge. [Eve - graph theoretic]
    
    5. Being tremendous, monstrous, monumental, mighty or whopping. [Eve - graph theoretic]
    
    6. Being great, big, considerable, large or massive. [Eve - graph theoretic]
    
    7. Being giant or gargantuan. [Eve - graph theoretic]
    
    8. Being excessive or extreme. [Eve - graph theoretic]
    
    9. Being extraordinary, prodigious or terrific. [Eve - graph theoretic]

[rstevenson]

And of course an appropriate APOD image is whatever these guys say it is.

Rob

[probley1]

I can't believe APOD can be so irrepsonsible! here we are, in a struggle to preserve what's left of our climate, and you have the gall to post the engine of destruction of said climate, not to mention the environment, by facilitating the removals of vast quantities of coal, clearly the commodity with the biggest carbon footprint of them all.

[neufer]

And of course an appropriate APOD image is whatever these guys say it is.

<<The provenance of The Astronomer can be traced back to 27 April 1713, when it was sold at the Rotterdam sale of an unknown collector together with The Geographer. The presumed buyer was Hendrik Sorgh, whose estate sale held in Amsterdam on 28 March 1720 included both The Astronomer and The Geographer, which were described as ‘Een Astrologist: door Vermeer van Delft, extra puyk’ (An Astrologist by Vermeer of Delft, topnotch) and ‘Een weerga, van ditto, niet minder’ (Similar by ditto, no less).

Between 1881 and 1888 it was sold by the Paris art dealer Léon Gauchez to the banker and art collector Alphonse James de Rothschild, after whose death it was inherited by his son, Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild. In 1940 is was seized from his hotel in Paris by the Nazi Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die Besetzten Gebiete after the German invasion of France. A small swastika was stamped on the back in black ink. The painting was returned to the Rothschilds after the war, and was donated to the Louvre in 1982 by Guy de Rothschild.>>

[neufer]

I can't believe APOD can be so irrepsonsible! here we are, in a struggle to preserve what's left of our climate, and you have the gall to post the engine of destruction of said climate, not to mention the environment, by facilitating the removals of vast quantities of coal, clearly the commodity with the biggest carbon footprint of them all.

I wish that Germany would be more repsonsible, too,
and not spend all those tax dollars on wind & solar power

[Ann]

And of course an appropriate APOD image is whatever these guys say it is.

Rob

Hey, Rob! You were the one who pixelated Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell in their guises as Astronomer and Geographer! I didn't notice before. Now I can see that you deserve your distinguished Toroidal Pixelator title even more!

Ann

[Ann]

<<The provenance of The Astronomer can be traced back to 27 April 1713, when it was sold at the Rotterdam sale of an unknown collector together with The Geographer. The presumed buyer was Hendrik Sorgh, whose estate sale held in Amsterdam on 28 March 1720 included both The Astronomer and The Geographer, which were described as ‘Een Astrologist: door Vermeer van Delft, extra puyk’ (An Astrologist by Vermeer of Delft, topnotch) and ‘Een weerga, van ditto, niet minder’ (Similar by ditto, no less).

Amazing! Extra puyk! I agree. And what a delightful expression. Why don't we use that all over the world these days?

Ann

[rstevenson]

Hey, Rob! You were the one who pixelated Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell in their guises as Astronomer and Geographer! I didn't notice before. Now I can see that you deserve your distinguished Toroidal Pixelator title even more!

That's an extra puyk observation, Ann.

(See the Weather thread.)

Rob

[K1NS]

I don't think so. Blades work by cutting, a process that is different from digging. If you run a blade very slowly, it doesn't cut at all, but can gouge (dig) out material. Unless this excavator spins at a few hundred RPM, it really can't be called a saw blade. Also, material properties don't scale with size; the material behavior of a small piece of wood or metal is nothing like the material behavior of a huge section of earth.

That's why I said "more accurately a dado blade." A dado blade actually digs a groove. However, it does not have buckets between the teeth so it throws the ejecta forward. And of course, wood is a lot harder than soil, so you wouldn't want to run a dado blade at proportionally slow speeds.

But I guess my point was that tiny machines and huge machines still use the same physics. The article above about the microbot on the Lincoln penny supports my point.

[owlice]

Extra puyk! I agree. And what a delightful expression. Why don't we use that all over the world these days?

I don't know how "puyk" would be pronounced the world over, but in English, the pronunciation would likely be akin to puke, and "puke" is something I suspect most people wouldn't want extra of!