Earlier in June, I found myself going through another book that goes by the title of "Gravity's Arc: The Story of Gravity from Aristotle to Einstein and Beyond". I think the title does justice and I don't have to elaborate much on what this book is about.  

I managed to go through half the book and I intend to finish the other half. 

Now one of the many things they talk about in this book is this concept of a Space Gun. John Hunter's Space Gun.

I wasn't exactly sure if this project was technically possible. But then I wondered, if this guy (John Hunter) has been mentioned in a book that contains names such as Copernicus, Galileo, Einstein and even some of the modern day scientists. Then there has got to be a reason for that. 

This got me a bit more interested in John Hunter, the inventor and the scientist. So I ended up spending the next 45 minutes to an hour looking up this guy on the web. I couldn't find many references, but I did manage to find this one interview that has been posted on medium.com and I found it to be quite informative. 

According to John Hunter:

• "The current price of propellant in orbit is. It’s $5,000 per lb. That means, in order to send one astronaut to Mars,  that per astronaut it’s going to cost  five billion dollars just in fuel alone." 
• According to Wikipedia, SpaceX is shooting for $500 per pound ($1,100/kg).
• Again, according to John Hunter: “My latest numbers go down to $100 per lb.” 

Those numbers alone warrant further analysis when it comes to the claims that John Hunter has made. Also, it's worth noting that the proposed space gun is reusable and it is powered by hydrogen. Two very solid advantages over traditional rocket based technologies. 

This is a very interesting proposition. I can't help but think of the different ways such a system can be leveraged for purposes other than shooting cargo in space. For starters, a modified version of this invention could help revolutionize the delivery system that will potentially be powered by drones. That requires a fundamental redesign of the urban landscape. As you don't want to shoot projectiles over populations. 

John Hunter is an interesting fellow and it seems like he has enough experience to be able to backup a revolutionary invention such as a space gun and help make it see the light of the day. 

It's interesting to see developments in the world of robotics and to think and wonder about the different possibilities that such a movement could power in the near future. 

I've been casually observing the work done by companies such Boston Robotics. Also, as I have shared on my blog before, Boston Robotics acquisition by Google is very interesting. 

Now, Boston Robotics have this one product and it's called Petman. When I look at a product such as Petman, I can't help but wonder:

1. Why don't we send Petman to Mars? Why don't we send a dozen of them in a variety of shapes and forms? Perhaps send it along with a companion device that provides them with the steady supply of energy that they need. 
   
2. Can Oculus be hacked in such a way as to receive a live stream from Petman? So that the operator would actually see what Petman sees.
3. Petman on the ocean floor, monitoring undersea cables for cracks/fissures. 
4. Petman hopping off one of the automated fleet of trucks that navigate the city. Delivering your package and/or your pizza to you, with a friendly smile on it's face. You don't even have to tip him.
5. Petman walking your dog, doing your laundry and mowing your lawn. 
6. Petman replacing drudgery. Every single job that follows a repeatable series of steps. 
7. Lot of other ideas influenced by seeing this development taking place.

                                 Petman can change a lot of things across a very wide spectrum. 

Also, Petman reminds me of C-3PO and I never thought of C-3PO as a robot. It was just another character. But what a great enabler it was!