Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to re: Robert Zubrin is an aerospace engineer like me.

re: Robert Zubrin is an aerospace engineer like me.
SDF — (archived)

Well, Zubrin isn't in the automotive sector, he's in the aerospace sector. In aerospace things are already designed for minimum weight using materials with the maximum strength to weight ratio. I mean, they actually call it "aircraft aluminum". They are also built with safety factors of 40 percent and composites are being introduced to minimize weight further. And the actual purpose is to reduce fuel consumption. Getting the plane into the air isn't the challenge today -- aircraft are 100-year old technology, we can make a brick fly by putting the right engine on it. We make them light to reduce fuel cost. To him, and other aerospace engineers, that's just the way things are done. In automotive they make things out of steel with safety factors of 10. As heavy as possible, apparently. Kinda like civil engineering where steel, concrete & asphalt are the main materials, bridges and roads the primary object being built, and they are expected to last 50 years or more. They are built Heavy. On the flip-side, aircraft require far more maintenance and safety inspections than roads and bridges because their weight, performance and safety margins are narrower.

This just hasn't occurred to anyone in the automotive sector it seems. It is possible that the savings in fuel would not offset the cost of lighter materials. But I don't think that will always be so. When oil is depleted, as it probably will be within 30 years, we will switch to alternatives such as tar sand, coal liquefaction, and the price of gas will go up. Like it isn't high already. Lighter materials could easily be employed on full-sized cars to reduce weight. It's just that a smaller car requires LESS of these lighter materials. As an engineer it's maddening that cars keep getting bigger. To me, a motorcycle is the pinnacle of functionality, to be made further impressive by the all-weather enclosure of a tilting three-wheeler.

Like I said, the culture is self-defeating rather then self-limiting. It'll implode eventually. I just hope we don't fall back onto a totalitarian solution. That would suck, since it is easily preventable just by educating people and getting them to listen to some engineering advice.

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