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$96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

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Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#411

> Despite the tech-cool factor of the project, Tom's Hardware does not condone making your own weapons system at home. Not that this matters for the topic, but I don't see why people have started saying "weapons system" instead of "weapon".

price bump -> value alignment

layoffs -> right sizing

censorship -> content moderation

tracking -> personalization

secretary -> executive assistant

gambling -> event contracts

inflation -> price pressure

protestors -> domestic terrorists

bailout -> liquidity support

invasion -> stabilization effort

war -> special military operation

war of aggression -> preventive action for national security purposes

lies -> misstatements

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#412

> Despite the tech-cool factor of the project, Tom's Hardware does not condone making your own weapons system at home. Not that this matters for the topic, but I don't see why people have started saying "weapons system" instead of "weapon".

Guided missile launchers are weapons systems, because the projectile and the launcher each are a component of a complete system which requires significant technology. This is in contrast to a firearm, which has all of the technology in the gun and not the ammunition (for the most part) or more simply a knife or sword.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#413
I think this violates ITAR. You aren't allowed put a guidance system on a rocket. And even if you were allowed to do it for your own fun/education, you certainly aren't allowed to provide instructions to foreign entities about how it do it.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#414
Regardless of whether this actually works (I have my doubts, but also understand it might be difficult to get range time on a device like this :)), it exposes a fundamental issue with arms control today.

Small firearms are hundreds of years old. Drones have been commercially available for many years and are easily modifiable into something that is 80% as good as what is currently being fielded in Ukraine.

It is not technically feasible to restrict someone from assembling basic, non-firearm-specific components to build a firearm. In the US, there is an increasing effort at the state level to serialize, restrict, and document individual firearm parts. However, an 80% good barrel can be fabricated at home, a 100% as good receiver can be printed on any recent 3D printer, and the rest of the parts (bolt, trigger assembly, etc) can be designed around easy home fabrication (see FGC-9). There is no practical way to trace, regulate, or stop behavior.

It isn't possible to restrict someone from building a capable drone either. The firmware is opensource, the parts can be ordered from almost any marketplace, and an energetic payload can easily be made by any amateur chemist from chemicals in any hardware or camping store. EW is often touted as a solution, but is frequently beaten by tethered drones. Cheap COTS IMUs are getting good enough to provide surprisingly accurate short-term INS, to say nothing of autonomous systems that need no external input past initial targeting.

I personally think this is a far bigger risk than most countries realize, largely because they are 10-15 years behind the technology. I believe this will force most governments into spending an order of magnitude more to defend their institutions at every level, not just core government security.

At least in the US, these threat vectors will absolutely be used to justify intrusions into civil liberties, but no amount of infringement will be able to even partially mitigate these threats. I think this should start to play out over the next 5-10 years.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#415

> Despite the tech-cool factor of the project, Tom's Hardware does not condone making your own weapons system at home. Not that this matters for the topic, but I don't see why people have started saying "weapons system" instead of "weapon".

Guided missile launchers are weapons systems, because the projectile and the launcher each are a component of a complete system which requires significant technology. This is in contrast to a firearm, which has all of the technology in the gun and not the ammunition (for the most part) or more simply a knife or sword.

I suppose I'd say: well, no, a gun's ammunition does something significant, but also even if that disambiguation were necessary in a particular circumstance, this article is not that.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#416
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should be sweating, because if the other side can fire 100 rockets for $10k that are close enough to not immediately and obviously be off target, and you don't know whether a more expensive one with actual explosives is hiding within that barrage, you now have 100 targets to try to intercept, and suddenly your costs have gone up dramatically while the other sides costs has barely moved.

100 rockets for $10k is not happening. The price floor is not dictated by the electronics (which did get cheaper), it's dictated by the rest of the system: propulsion, warheads, arming and safety, QA, traceability, climate and shelf life stability. Take a look at Raytheon's manufacturing line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCCkVAHSzrc That's what it takes to have missiles that are nearly guaranteed to perform to sp…

>safety, QA, traceability, climate and shelf life stability.

The guy you're trying to kill doesn't care about that. The missile he's firing was made last week and on a more than 5min timeline firing it is less dangerous than letting you continue uncontested.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MANPADS are certainly covered by ITAR. It could probably be effectively argued by his lawyers that what he has created isn't truly MANPADS but rather just an edgy toy that superficially resembles a weapon system but isn't actually capable of performing as one. Maybe that would work, but I think his chance of getting dragged into the legal system for this or for some chickenshit like weed possession are very high, par…

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2332g states that just having a system "intended to launch or guide a rocked or missile described in... [description of MANPAD type rocket]" carries life imprisonment. He calls it a manpad and then shows a system intended to launch it. There is no consideration in the law whether he actually plans to use it or ever meant any violence, nor any consideration of whether it viol…

There seems to be a jurisdictional escape clause in the sense that possession without use within the US without the intent to attack aircraft may not fall into interstate commerce. In which case the state law would govern the act.

IANAL

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#418
post #414

Regardless of whether this actually works (I have my doubts, but also understand it might be difficult to get range time on a device like this :)), it exposes a fundamental issue with arms control today. Small firearms are hundreds of years old. Drones have been commercially available for many years and are easily modifiable into something that is 80% as good as what is currently being fielded in Ukraine. It is not t…

I am certainly pro T2A but your argument doesn't hold - laws to regulate arms are not effective only in a binary way - if they reduce the number of arms they are doing what they say on the tin.

Whether we should be trying to regulate arms is another issue.

Re: $96 3D-printed rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor

#420
post #414

Regardless of whether this actually works (I have my doubts, but also understand it might be difficult to get range time on a device like this :)), it exposes a fundamental issue with arms control today. Small firearms are hundreds of years old. Drones have been commercially available for many years and are easily modifiable into something that is 80% as good as what is currently being fielded in Ukraine. It is not t…

I am certainly pro T2A but your argument doesn't hold - laws to regulate arms are not effective only in a binary way - if they reduce the number of arms they are doing what they say on the tin. Whether we should be trying to regulate arms is another issue.

Obama and Biden were the best gun salesman the USA has had in awhile. It's not clear they reduce the number of arms, depending on the culture. In USA culture we've seen the number of arms in civilian hands expand even as regulations increase.
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