Mark Van Allen and I were talking the other day, and he brought this to my attention… and I was instantly in awe:
It’s a mining machine they made out in Germany. You can read all about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagger_288. I’m not going to lie, the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture was “Decepticon!”
Now, somehow this article and surrounding conversation resulted in me reading about SkyLab for a few hours. I ? Internet.
“The large surface area of the tracks means the ground pressure of the Bagger 288 is very small (17.1 N/cm2 or 24.8 psi); this allows the excavator to travel over gravel, earth and even grass without leaving a significant track.”
Physics is neat.
Yeah, I’ve seen those things before, and had a similar awed reaction. Those things are crazy (and I think there may have been a modern marvels about these that I watched).