Tehcnology of Gundam

[Joshua Lambert]

Mobile Suit Gundam was the first of it's kind, it started the 'Real Mech' genre of giant robot anime, and other series alike. It portrayed the robots as war machines used in a highly developed fictional world, as apposed to it's predecessor super robots.

The thing that has always fascinated me about the Universal Century, and why I stray away from alternate universe series is that the Universal Century has a set guild line to what technology is available at certain times in the fictional calender.

Fell free to discuss the technologies of gundam from any series and what you enjoy here, this may also serve as a guide to help better modify model kits too. I know I try to stay strictly in the guidelines of what would be used during the time of the model I build, and think it adds more depth to the kit.

There are numerous websites explaining the technology of Gundam, one of the best is Ultimate Mark.

The thing I enjoy the most about Universal Century is Minovsky Physics, the thing that makes the Sci-Fi rich beam weapons, and giant robots possible in their world.

In the Gundam world Yuri T. Minovski developed a way to create a nuclear engine that was big enough to be used on vehicle's, however it emitted particles that jammed radio based technologies. This being said, the Zeon used this technology to fight, though outnumbered nearly ten times, the federation forces and take some easy victories in the early stages of the war. In our world, Mobile Suits wouldn't be probable, but if you took away all our GPS and Radio controll, we would be worthless. We wouldn't have guided missiles, we wouldn't have communication, and we wouldn't have the warfare we know, that is why the mobile suit was even thinkable in the Gundam world.

[Paul Lopez]

You say mobile suits would'nt be a possibility, but I would have to disagree. From what I'm told the outer armour of a mobile suit is actually a type of super strong ceramic composite material. I personally think we could very well one day see a Gundam go into war operation in the future. Just think how easy it would be to make it happen if you could develop some kind of ceramic material that does'nt break easily and impact resistant, withstands high temperatures, and is light and easy to transport. The only problem then would be building the inner frame that would support all the armour, but with the way technology is evolving I don't think were far off from having real mobile suits.

[Joshua Lambert]

There are so many problems though that would come with a mobile suit.
1) Cost... to build something like that, and to mass produce them would be expensive, and it would probably take years to develop a working machine.
2) Moving parts... a huge problem with even our fighter jets. The Mobile Suit would be so clanky and odd that it would hardly be maneuverable on a terrain surface. Not to mention with so many moving parts, it would constantly need repair, which would up the cost even more.
3) Power, it would have to have an external power source, because it would be way to hard to run this thing on fossil fuels, in fact I'm sure it wouldn't even be powerful enough.

And even if we did develop a more lightweight armor material, it would most likely be given to the tanks. Besides, what is the need for such a weapon when we can do military operations without our enemy ever seeing us? I think the future of our military, at this point, is working on ways to create GPS based weapons and satellite based weapons. We will see more accurate missiles, and things of that such long before we ever see a mech. The closest thing to a mech I can see is a armor suit.

Also, robot technology isn't advanced enough. To create the computer system in this machine would probably take longer than the machine itself.

How all of this is combated in Gundam... well..

For cost, Asteroids where brought in to surrounding areas, and mined, also... they discovered new forms of existing metals, and where able to purify them more to create Lunar Titanium (Later Gundanium) Which was only used on high level machines (Like V Project mobile suits) because it was more expensive.

Moving Parts:

Since they are far enough into the future where people can successfully thrive in earth, it's easy to see that technology is far more ahead of our  on in their world. Also, the use of a space machine creates less stress on mechanical parts, but I'm sure they had a lot of trouble with this issue.

And as for the power issue, that is already discussed in my small excerpt of Minovsky Physics.

So in conclusion... I think a mobile suit would be incredibly useless in our world, it would be slow, have to work on flat ground, and would easily get picked off by a missile or artillery shell. I doubt we wont see anything like that in our lifetime, or our children's lifetime.

[Alan Britten]

Gona chuck me 2 cents in there. I work around with a lot of robotic parts, large power requirments and difficult data issues for all this as an example (plus you get to see my work area) Here I go...

Ceramic material: Ceramic is a lot like the clay you played with in art at school. It is natural elements dug out of the ground, refined so it isn't clay then headed at high temperature to harden and change states. The problem with ceramic is there is no give. Like glass even thick it can chip, crack or smash but not break or tear like metal (if you shoot it or blow it up god knows what will happen). Good news if we could give it some gum fibers or something like that safety or bullet proof glass, harden it heaps and it could already (like all ceramic) can take extreme heat. But you cannot take the weight out of it, it will be heavy...

Second data: during x-mass at work we had a display with robot reindeer, monkeys and other crap all around a hall. At the time it was the biggest aromatic show in the work at the moment. Just to control 120 (moving parts) air compressed hydrologic, motors and pumps tock a very large control room to operate (I was on of 10 operators). A mobile suit has a lot more moving parts with only a torso cockpit to control it. In data and control we have a long way to go...

With powering the show don't get me started...

Maintenance: For the example above we had free access to any piece of equipment (where a mobile suit would be under amour) were we required 24 hour at any time to replace or repair something. At most times we had up to 6 of our own techs on stand by, a small group for special equipment we hired and contractors. Something was always breaking down at any time during a show. We could turn that piece off. With a mobile suit if a body piece or joint was broken it could mean life or death for the mission...

Battle robots are possible but needs to start small and have a long way to go. A Gundam is possible in future but maybe not in our life time...

Here are some of the picture of my work place. I spend day in day out plus may other areas fixing this thing...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nandyssy/93559687/ (2008, A few months back I call the dragon dan)
http://www.balancedtech.com.au/news/images/crown_clock1.jpg (2007 xmass only found clock)
http://www.anodising.org/images/crown_atrium.jpg (normal with out normal shows)

[Joshua Lambert]

I know that ceramic is used for space shuttle re-entry.
Perhaps a mobile suit like the Zeta, with it's atmospheric re-entry uses a futuristic ceramic like material due to it's heat absorbing qualities.

One solution to powering a mobile suit, it would be easy to create smaller generators in different portions of the body. For example, a core generator, upper arm generators, leg generators, and a groin generator. Each assigned and divided to control different parts of the mobile suit.

As for how the mobile suits work so well without malfunction, well... at least mobile suits after the G-3 Gundam. Magnetic Coating. A special magnetic coating that is applied on the internal structure. This would dramatically increase mobility, save on power, and ease stress. We use something similar in roller coasters and in trains today.

DWD:
Awesome stuff man, that looks like a fantastic and enjoyable job!
Though... what do monkeys have to do with X-Mas? Is that an Australian thing? :razz:

[Zach]

Ilike HARO, its a cute little robot, don't you think? It's particularly funny in Gundam 00!

[Paul Lopez]

Ilike HARO, its a cute little robot, don't you think? It's particularly funny in Gundam 00!

  alllla just got the award for most random post of the day. Besides that, depending on what's used you can actually make a ceramic material that is both strong and light. The problem would be reinforcing it.

  We're also talking about making a 60 foot tall robot. There are machines that are significantly larger than 60 feet and weigh way more than the estimated weights in Gundam Bios.

  When it come to creating a controling a machine of this size then maybe the US military should partner with Nintendo to create the omega Wii and have something similar to the cockpits in G Gundam.

[Zach]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I never one anything before!!!

[Paul Lopez]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I never one anything before!!!

 You're Welcome!

[Joshua Lambert]

Nothing beats the original Haro.

But as for Nintendo making the controls for the mech...
What is this world coming too! Soon Mario, and all his company will be holding their part in Wars! Super Smash Brothers: United Nations!

This is kind of scary, japan is already taking steps towards world domination! Lol, I doubt it. :razz: 

[Alan Britten]

Im also taking the

This is kind of scary, japan is already taking steps towards world domination! Lol, I doubt it. :razz: 

Im taking the same steps but only got a 1 ton truck full of audio gear and $7,600au saved up. I've tried creating an Noah's Ark for internet porn but that didn't work out eather...

Good on ya Allla...

I saw a really cool pink Haro at an anime con in melbourne, It rolled around, sung and flaped it ears things and even talked to you. It cost some girl a few $300 to import it from Japan, this could be the start of our real gundam (being a real haro). Nothing does beats the original Haro, it was cool when they found it in Zeta Gundam...

agar_heavenly: Thanks but its got old after oping it after two week (it ran for a month and a half), it was just like another day at the office. Plus monkeys have nothing to do with X-Mas (I think the designer was on weed) an Australian X-mas is normaly really hot, hard to sleep and cold beer (plus being out of pocket due to buying stuff)...

I also see this topic is badly off topic but what the hell. Im having fun...

[Joshua Lambert]

I have the old green robotic Haro, it's supposed to be an alarm clock, but it's the most interactive alarm clock I've ever owned. He's a great buddy when your bored. XD

Back onto topic..

I dont know if most people know this but... a lot of technology in gundam is based off real theory. Such as Space Colonies, based off the O'Neil cylinder. And Lagrange points, and so forth. And, by 2010 America is supposed to reach 9billion in population, who else thinks we need to put less money into terrorism and start focusing on other fuel sorces, or even more into space.

Just think, we find a way to make the movski generators, we are good to go, we got levitation, radar jamming technology for the ultimate stealth, and beam.

Another thing I have though about was... with all this technology being discovered in the gundam world, how do you think that affected civillian life?

For example: The beam saver technology is basically a very large lighter. Perhaps in the gundam world they actually did create minovski lighters! I mean, wouldn't that be cool to have a little working beam saber to use for everyday pyro-activities?

[zerobxu]

You make some good points, but I've gotta correct one of them.

And, by 2010 America is supposed to reach 9billion in population, who else thinks we need to put less money into terrorism and start focusing on other fuel sorces, or even more into space.

The population estimate for the United States in 2008 is 303.5 million. The population of the Earth for 2006 was estimated at 6.5 billion. Following this trend, the United Nations Population Division estimated this year that the world population will hit nine billion in 2050.

This doesn't invalidate your very good points. If you ask me, we should take some serious steps right now towards terraforming Venus--but that's just me.  

For some good reading on the technology of Gundam, I'd suggest paying a visit to Mark Simmon's website: Ultimate Mark.

EDIT: There's also some info on the technology of Gundam (also written by Mark Simmons, I believe) on the U.C. section of the "GundamOfficial.com" site.

[Joshua Lambert]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. I wasn't sure if it was earth or USA, I heard it in a political debate while researching about the current election process.

Venus would be a good one to populate. Not gundam, but an old PC game called Outpost had some very scientifically accurate game play on inhabiting other planets. There are a number of ways a space colony, ever, for instance, one on the moon, could be produced. Gundam goes into great depth about how people have adapted to space life. For instant, the little tote-ways thay take down the walls of ships and zero gravity zones.

A good Gundam manga to read, for a near civilian way of life is Ecole Du en Ciel (Or something crazy). I am on volume 5 and love it.

Also, I had posted Mark Simmon's sight up above (beat yah too it  )

A couple other good sites for people who have spent their time doing similar research are:
Mobile Suit Gundam: High Frontier
This site has some very good insight on tieing the Gundam world to our own, it also has a very nice timeline.

Library of Londenion
Good information about pilots that where never seen in the seires, such as Robert Gilliam, Shin Matsunaga, and Johnny Ridden.

and last but not least:
Den of the White Wolf
This has much information on military ranking, mobile suit tactics, and even the number of how many mobile suits where built, and battle specifics. Very nice if you are into that sort of thing.

Some people got Civil war, world war II, other's have startrek, and starwars. We got Gundam! Which I see as a mix of all of those. ;3

[Austin Chien]

realize this... most of the futuristic Sci fi anything is set in the future. and becuz it is set in the future it means its not gonna happen 1 or 2 years from now. However, becuz it is set in the future, it can be a possibility. Gundams are probably not gonna come around in our lifetime, but i bet u someday they will have em or something related. Unless the world truly does end in 2012...