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Is It Possible To GROW Planes And Vehicles?

It takes a lot of just-in-time manufacturing and planning to bring tens of thousands of parts together, fitting perfectly, to manufacture an aircraft or vehicle. What if we could just grow what we wanted?

Science fiction writer Greg Bear describes this idea in his 2015 novel Killing Titan:

These organic compounds will provide plenty of the raw materials used by our weapon and vehicle seeds to double and even triple their present mass...

"These are your rudimentary seed packages," Bueller says. "Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures, like excavators or centipedes. Others will take more time and grow out to full size by themselves, mostly the vehicles supporting big weapons - zap guns, ionics, penetrators.
(Read more about vehicle seeds)

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/19/2021)

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Related News Stories - (" Manufacturing ")

Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.' - Philip K. Dick, 1956.

DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.' - Greg Bear, 2015

Robot Bricklayer Or Passer-By Bricklayer?
'Oscar picked up a trowel. 'I'm the tool for the mortar,' the little trowel squeaked cheerfully.' - Bruce Sterling, 1998.

Organic Non-Planar 3D Printing
'It makes drawings in the air following drawings...' - Murray Leinster, 1945.

 

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Did Frank Herbert Predict E-Ink Displays?
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'

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'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'

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'And here they began to build...'

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'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'

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'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'

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'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'

DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.'

Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'

The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'

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'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'

Vero Robotic Dog With Vacuum Cleaner Feet
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'So far as I could see, the thing was without a directing Martian at all.'

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't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'

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