#2427: KiteKits

I read a story today about a plan to create planet lander craft in the form of kites.

Today’s invention takes this a step further.

Edith_Anne_Oliveira_Santos_fly

Imagine dropping large numbers of flat-sheet kites over any planet with an atmosphere.

These would glide down -each landing very gently.

The kites would each have a small electric vehicle attached to one corner, allowing them to move across the ground and self-assemble at one location.

Each kite would act as a single layer in a 3D printed electromechanical machine -potentially of great size and complexity.

This would then drive off and perform some mission, without ever having been shaken up on impact with the ground.

2 Comments:

    • Yep that is certainly uber-cool…I was thinking that kites could form a stack, like a pile of paper. Each ‘page’ would have a layer of several components etched into it that would talk to neighbouring layers…as these communicate and lock together a 3D form would emerge. Each layer of a component could be surrounded by a small number of perforations, like a stamp. When 3D components had formed, they could force themselves apart so that discrete machines would be created.

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