The Guardian: "You will not have a jet pack, live with it"

There are also “opponents” of jetpacks, such as the journalist Dean Burnett from The Guardian, we will know them by sight.

Dude, there will be a jetpack for you.


Article of September 23, 2014

Typical complaints about science are connected with jetpacks - you see, we still don’t have them, but “promised.” However, their absence is not connected with the failure of scientists, but with physical and anatomical limitations, not to mention the fact that the creation of a jet pack is a terrible undertaking.

"Where is my jetpack?"

You have probably heard this question more than once. And with a 99% probability this was said as a rebuke to scientists. Because if scientists did their jobs well, we would already have jet packs, right?

Today, it is increasingly possible to see how people on the Internet — a place where everyone can express their complaints, demonstrate their ego — appear with online requests like “where is my jetpack?” So, we have people with frighteningly powerful pocket computers, who can access all the information bases of the world, one has only to push the (virtual) button through invisible rays moving at the speed of light, and they use them to write complaints that they do not have “futuristic” technologies. But who needs introspection if you have a brilliant phone, right?

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Some require jetpacks, not because they want to get them, but because they were promised! Although in fact no one knows who promised it or when. This is usually attributed to "scientists" or simply "science", although many may confuse "science" with "science fiction", whence all the predictions about jet packs come from. According to science fiction, aliens should have destroyed us for a long time, or a zombie apocalypse was supposed to reign on Earth, but I don’t often see people who complain that it never happened.

Real scientists are unlikely to ever come to a consensus, let alone make loud promises in public. And in rare cases, when 95% of scientists promise something, for example, “if you do not stop throwing CO 2 into the atmosphere, you will ruin this planet,” people usually ignore it or completely fall asleep to scientists with threats.

Therefore, if all claims to scientists about the fact that they did not invent a jetpack, are based on what they never did or did not say, then ... if they never appointed me as their representative, of course, I will.

And as the official representative of science in the case of jetpacks, which have not yet become widespread, let me say the following: shut up! Stop your stupid nagging. You will not have a jet pack, live with it.

Why do you want him so much? Do you want to fly? You can fly if you want. Now there are a lot of low-cost airlines, buy a ticket and go ahead - to meet the adventures! It's too expensive? Do you think that jetpacks will be cheap, that they will be laid out in mailboxes as flyers? Or that airplanes are not “so cool”? Oh well.

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Do you think making a jet pack is so easy? Still, jet engines were invented, and the bags were invented, what's the problem then? It should be easy, as if Earl Sandwich had a doctorate in rocket engines. It is sad to admit, but it is not so simple at all. What is to hide “to find a way for the average member of society to fly” is not the main priority of each research structure, although over the years various people, from engineers to amateurs, have made a large number of attempts. So far, for certain reasons, not a single working model has been made.

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The classic image of the jetpack can be seen in the film “Rocketman”. At the mention of it in front of our eyes, an image of a person soaring up into the air with pillars of fire behind his back (as is usually the case with rockets) rises immediately. In order to answer what is wrong with this image, imagine how a powerful blowtorch is directed at your feet for a long time. People are afraid of getting corns from cycling seats, so hardly anyone will tolerate burning their skin in the name of convenient transportation.

Perhaps people understand the term “jet pack” in a more general sense. Rocket engines are a kind of jet engines, according to physics, but most jet engines do not create huge pillars of flame. If you are flying in an airplane and suddenly the engine starts to spew flames, then the correct reaction to this will not be “oh, how cool.” But even under the condition that they are not as flame-erupting as rockets, with jetpacks everything is more complicated.

The main snag is gravity. In July 2013, a team of engineers from the University of Toronto built a pedal-driven device that allowed a person to be in the air for more than 60 seconds. For this, they were awarded a sum of $ 250,000.



Compare this to the Tour de France, where hundreds of people using pedal-driven vehicles were able to cross the whole country. Now you see that it is much easier to move on the ground than through the air.

This is all according to Newton and the laws of mechanics formulated by him. With vertical movement, you need so much power to “turn off” gravity before you can move anywhere. Keep in mind that you will have to deal with the total mass of the planet Earth, which is, as it are scientifically to say, "hefty."

Of course, you can overcome gravity, there are flights and trips to space, but for this you need a lot of energy. At the moment, the most practical fuel that we have is chemical. Jet fuel and rocket fuel are produced using highly reactive chemicals that have a high physical mass, which also needs to be considered. The more energy you need, the more fuel you need for your aircraft. The more fuel, the more your aircraft will weigh. The more he weighs, the more energy you need in order for it to move from place - a vicious circle is formed (a term that is also very suitable for pedal-driven flight).

To achieve sustainable flight of aircraft, the principles of aerodynamics are taken into account, and manned rockets are very large. The Apollo programs used large Saturn-5 rockets, most of which, first of all, needed fuel to get into space. A huge amount of fuel was required to send an object the size of a minibus into space.

I hope that, with this in mind, it will be easier for you to understand why jet packs are impractical. In the case of a jetpack, the person attached to it is a useless mass, which must also be taken into account. In fact, there are already such jetpacks that allow their owner to make significant jumps until the fuel runs out, but apart from doing impressive tricks at the opening of the Olympics, how else can this be used?

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Until we find an affordable and at the same time very powerful source of fuel that can provide energy that is enough for a long-distance flight in something like a backpack, jet packs are unreal. We may be able to miniaturize nuclear reactors, but since people are already panicking about the fact that they live 15 km from a nuclear station, they will not be able to carry such bags.

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Even if energy problems are solvable, there are other issues, such as how to manage them. And even if this and all other problems are solved and the jet packs become a mass product, is this reasonable? Machines today are a common phenomenon, but they were not introduced to the general use without problems, on the contrary - there were a lot of “trial and error” - to put it mildly. The transport system is well regulated and carefully controlled (speed limits, designated roads and lanes, numerous laws, and so on). Many do not understand this, but the meaning of these rules is to save people from death!

That, in general, poses a new question regarding jetpacks - security. If your bike or your car breaks down suddenly, you will be angry, but you will not die from a fatal fall from a height. People make mistakes for various reasons (if you have ever come across rudeness on the roads, you can clearly imagine the reasons). Now imagine that instead of creating a dangerous situation or blocking the road, the incompetence or inattention of the owner of the vehicle led to his uncontrolled fall on the town with explosives on its back. A flat tire will never lead to problems of this kind.

In addition, it will not be easy to use jetpacks. Pilots train for years before they are entrusted with the control of the flying machine, it cannot be said that it will be different with jet packs. And if suddenly all this can be somehow effectively settled, what is the result? As a result, we will get a large part of the population - flying with jetpacks and throwing out waste caused by high-energy fuel reactions. The impact of these emissions on the environment and climate can be devastating.

Thus, even though the idea of ​​a “jet pack” seems cool, the difficulties and dangers inherent in its embodiment can definitely have such an effect that the average “demand” of the pack does not even suspect. And he needs to think, because this effect can be irreparable. In general, it would be much safer, and simply cooler, if everyone had hoverboards like in the movie “Back to the Future-2”. And by the way, where are they? Hey, scientists, get to work!

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“A new star is burning in the sky. It was lit, of course, by hooligans. ”(Valentin Gaft)



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PS


By the way, the company RUVDS became interested in jetpack and helps to storm the clouds.

Bonus blog readers:
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/413041/


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