Darpa Case Study
The military agency that turns dreams into reality, DARPA, is investing into building materials that will actually grow and repair themselves if they're damaged. Like Wolverine from X-Men, but your roof after a hail storm.
Let's face it: going back and forth from hardware stores to fix crap that went wrong in your house is tiring. Your house needs constant maintenance, or else your house becomes the house that parents warn their kids not to go near because it looks like Jason Voorhees lives there. What DARPA wants to do is switch out those materials you have to buy from the store with new building materials that have the ability to grow into different shapes, self-repair, and can even change and adapt to different environments. Think Midwest …show more content…
That same house in Detroit gets hit by weather with no care put into it. That leaves the house looking like the BS you see on every story about Detroit. If this tech is in place, it would be theoretically unchanged if it works.
"The vision of the ELM program is to grow materials on demand where they are needed," explained ELM program manager Justin Gallivan. "Imagine that instead of shipping finished materials, we can ship precursors and rapidly grow them on site using local resources."
One problem that I forsee if this is successful is that it will put a lot of manufacturing places out of business. If all lightning bulbs lasted 100 years, all the companies that make them will be out of business after everyone buys a couple, right?
Either way, the idea that you could have a roof that adapts to the weather to not only protect the outside, but make the inside more comfy is a very intriguing concept. Having done roofing for a year or two, I would way rather not have to climb a roof to rip out tiles.
We'll have to see if DARPA can pull this one off so that we don't have to go wander around Home Depot for the right kind of
Let's face it: going back and forth from hardware stores to fix crap that went wrong in your house is tiring. Your house needs constant maintenance, or else your house becomes the house that parents warn their kids not to go near because it looks like Jason Voorhees lives there. What DARPA wants to do is switch out those materials you have to buy from the store with new building materials that have the ability to grow into different shapes, self-repair, and can even change and adapt to different environments. Think Midwest …show more content…
That same house in Detroit gets hit by weather with no care put into it. That leaves the house looking like the BS you see on every story about Detroit. If this tech is in place, it would be theoretically unchanged if it works.
"The vision of the ELM program is to grow materials on demand where they are needed," explained ELM program manager Justin Gallivan. "Imagine that instead of shipping finished materials, we can ship precursors and rapidly grow them on site using local resources."
One problem that I forsee if this is successful is that it will put a lot of manufacturing places out of business. If all lightning bulbs lasted 100 years, all the companies that make them will be out of business after everyone buys a couple, right?
Either way, the idea that you could have a roof that adapts to the weather to not only protect the outside, but make the inside more comfy is a very intriguing concept. Having done roofing for a year or two, I would way rather not have to climb a roof to rip out tiles.
We'll have to see if DARPA can pull this one off so that we don't have to go wander around Home Depot for the right kind of