If you have been following the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movies, then you are definitely familiar with the Iron Man. But, the practical question is, can a real-life iron man suit be made?
Iron Man Extremis Part 1 – Iron Man Vol 4 Issue 1
A single mention of this name and the first thing that pops in anyone’s mind is his legendary red and gold armour suit.
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How to build an Iron Man suit
The recent improvised bleeding edge armour suit is even more fascinating than the previous ones. So, it is understandable why everyone wants to build and own one.
Well, if we are talking of the armoured suit that protects and improves the strength of a person, then the current technology is capable of accomplishing that.
But, if you are considering Iron Man’s abilities such as the repulsor beam and infinite power, then we may never see some of these technologies materialize.
Some abilities such as flight and use of the nanotechnology are debatable.
In order to understand if we can truly design the Iron Man suit with its special components, we need to break it down and examine each item in depth.
Iron Man Technology
Let’s start with the awesome stuff and figure out the things we can create.
Is Iron Man Flight Possible?
There is a lot of physics that Tony Stark defies during his flights.
That means to make a flight similar to the one made by Tony Stark in the movie, would require some serious high-level technology inbuilt in a suit.
For example for the horizontal flight, he uses direct chemical thrust assisted by the repulsor beam.
During the flight, the gyro-stabilized repulsion allows him to stay up while the boots make the forward thrust. Such technology is currently not available.
However, it is possible to create some models of suits. The first suit was worn by Tony Stark, the Iron Man Armor MKI, never used the repulsor.
He designed it to use compressed air or hydrogen peroxide fuel to make jumps.
This is similar to what is used in modern jet packs.
Currently, some industries are designing jet suits that use compressed air to make jumps such as the ones made in Iron Man 1.
There are companies designing a suit that is powered by micro-jets. The suits manufactured by Gravity can jump as high as 12,000 feet and at a speed of 32 miles per hour. However, the simulator flights are done near the surface for safety reasons.
The military has also designed several “jump jets” that use a combination of hydrogen peroxide and catalysts.
These suits create a jet of steam that allows one to jump several meters above the ground. Others use nitrogen. However, neither of these are safe.
Could We Create A Power Supply Like Iron Man?
You can’t talk about a flight, without mentioning power.
So, in this case, what powers the Iron Man suit to make a vertical or horizontal thrust?
While the obvious answers are repulsion beams and rocket boots, these suggestions lead us to more questions.
The technology used to power the repulsion beams is beyond our current technology. How he defies the gravitational forces can only be through the use of a gravitation manipulation. We still don’t have a technology that can do that.
How To Build The Arc Reactor
When Tony Stark faces opponents in his upgraded suit, the repulsor beams appears and multiply.
They knock back the opponents and reattach themselves on the suit. The source of this energy is from a triangular-like arc reactor in Tony’s chest.
The ability of the small reactor to produce power similar to a nuclear submarine is unclear. In the movie, he says that it is capable of producing eight gigajoules of energy per second.
The reactor itself breaks all the rules of thermodynamics even if, it were to use zero-point energy.
We have to assume that there must be a pretty good cooling system to prevent Tony from being roasted.
The idea of having a miniature nuclear reactor sitting comfortably on Tony’s chest, and yet, capable of producing energy more than a nuclear reactor station is just unrealistic.
Is Tony Stark’s Helmet Possible?
Iron Man uses a cybernetic helmet to control the other devices in the suit. This is probably the most plausible thing about the Iron Man suit.
Furthermore, the world has made major technological steps to virtual games and artificial intelligence. So, cybernetic is something you should expect in the near future.
Iron Mans Weaponry
The repulsor beams also act as the main weapons for the Iron Man. However, in the Mark VIII suit, there was an upgrade.
He uses a weapon that fires condensed energy. It is unclear whether the new upgrade is a plasma cannon or not.
Nonetheless, such kind of a weapon still requires a lot of power, whose source is still questionable. Furthermore, we are still far away from converting pure energy into a weapon.
Another weapon is the Riot Shield. It is the only weapon that seems realistic. The shield materializes from the suit and retracts back when not in use. This means that there are some “nano-robots” that restructure to form the shield.
Currently, the nanotechnology is still at its initial stages of discovery and we are far from using it to produce such shields. Furthermore, having “nano-robots” that have artificial intelligence such as seen with Tony’s Mark VIII suit whereby, they covers him like a liquid, is more of a fantasy than reality.
The Iron Man Armour
The Iron Man suit acts as an exoskeleton that shields Tony Stark during flights and fights.
They also enhance his physical capabilities exponentially. But, can such an exoskeleton be made? The answer is yes.
In fact, currently, there are many designs of exoskeleton with a few of them looking similar to the Iron Man suit.
An example is the HULC hydraulic-powered exoskeleton that gives an individual the capability to carry more than 200 pounds of loads. There others that use electricity, such as the FORTIS exoskeleton.
We asked: Can A Real Life Iron Man Suit Be Made? It is clear that most of the components making up the Iron Man suit are far from being figured out; even in the near future.
However, many developments in modern technology make it possible that components of the Iron Man technology may become a reality.
Follow the link below for DIY Iron Man Suit Templates so you can build your own cosplay armour.
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