Existing landmine clearing methods (as opposed to detection methods) pretty much all have the same problem: They require some piece of equipment to be close to the mine, so as to be sure to set it off.
Expenditure of traditional ammunition to clear mines is possible, but would be enormously expensive, and also seed the soil with heavy metals.
I propose a vehicle that has in front (and placed high for a better angle at the ground) a wide array of very large shotguns. They should be filled with inexpensive slugs of some kind, something heavy enough to penetrate to two feet of packed dirt. 15 millimeter cast iron slugs perhaps. These can be accelerated via conventional means or by electricity. Since hypersonic speeds are not needed it may be possible to use linear electromagnetic force without damaging the gun. Or even air pressure.
This vehicle would roll along shooting at the ground a dozen feet ahead, using enough slugs to put one in every square inch of ground.
It would render the ground difficult to dig in, but it would guarantee destruction of landmines.
A version for heavily overgrown areas is much less wide and pushed by a person on large fat wheels.-- Voice, Sep 16 2020 Mines Advisory Group https://en.wikipedi...ines_Advisory_GroupBlowing stuff up ... [8th of 7, Sep 22 2020] But then the ground is full of these chunky lumps of iron. It would be better to use a gun which blasted the ground with very high velocity ice pellets. If the gun also blasted a selection of native seed varieties it would have environmental benefits too.-- hippo, Sep 16 2020 //a person on large fat wheels//-- pocmloc, Sep 16 2020 // pushed by a person on large fat wheels. //
Presumably someone in a wheelchair as a consequence of triggering a landmine...
Similar ideas to this were investigated in the 1940's and rejected in favour of the flail-type spinning drum with chains attached, as exemplified by the Sherman Crab.
Also, it very much depends on the type of mine you're trying to clear.-- 8th of 7, Sep 16 2020 //one in every square inch of ground// Umm, you might want to run some numbers on that; especially regarding vehicle velocity, reload capability, and on-board slug storage.-- neutrinos_shadow, Sep 16 2020 6 million icicles per acre, or ((((at a very large 3 cubic inches per icicle), 3 acre-inches. What's wrong with that?-- Voice, Sep 16 2020 //something heavy enough to penetrate to two feet of packed dirt. 15 millimeter cast iron slugs [...] Since hypersonic speeds are not needed//
Density : clay, dry 1600 kg/m^3 Density : iron 7,870 kg/m^3
Given Newton's approximation for impact depth, I don't think this is going to work unless the slugs are about five inches[1] long. And possibly not even then.
[1] 124 mm-- Loris, Sep 16 2020 Ice becomes very hard when cooled significantly below freezing. An ice "brick" dropped from some height (TBD) would have an impulse momentum transfer on impact. An ice "spike" would broaden that impulse, depending on soil. An ordinary snowball dropped from the same height would have a broad impulse on impact. A drone swarm could cover acres a day, depending on ice production rate, recharge time, payload, etc.
This scheme would have applicability to fighting forest fires. How to create a supercooled snowball...-- manwhojaped, Sep 18 2020 // drone swarm ice spike dropping service //
This technology could also be used for Lawn Aeration, with the added benefit of none of those little plugs that typical lawn aerators leave. Not sure what the neighbors would think about the noise and falling ice though.-- sninctown, Sep 18 2020 People keep on talking about ice as a prospective penetrator.
Density : ice 917 kg/m3
Given Newton's approximation for impact depth, I don't think this is going to work unless the icicles are at least 3.5 feet[2] long. Good luck with that.
[2] 1.06 m-- Loris, Sep 19 2020 I'm thinking this "Newton impact depth" limit is baked and misleading. Sure, at that depth, the sabot has been stopped, but the pressure wave keeps moving. The point was to trigger a displacement sensitive switch at typical buried depths. Landmines are buried at depths designed to be hidden and still maim people walking above. Buried too deep and it won't go off. Buried too deep, and it's blast will be absorbed by intervening soil. So, it's not likely to be buried too deep.-- manwhojaped, Sep 21 2020 Most contemporary antipersonnel mines aren't buried - they're scattered in vegetation, or placed with the sensor actually at the surface, not buried as such. The idea is concealment. Other designs use tripwires rather than pressure.-- 8th of 7, Sep 21 2020 Triggering via shock isn't enough: that leaves behind mines that are damaged, have magnetic triggers, or are sensitive only to a certain duration of pressure. It's necessary to breach the case of the mines.-- Voice, Sep 21 2020 //I'm thinking this "Newton impact depth" limit is baked and misleading.//
I'm going by the spec I quoted. Some might say that looked like overkill.
//Triggering via shock isn't enough: that leaves behind mines that are damaged, have magnetic triggers, or are sensitive only to a certain duration of pressure. It's necessary to breach the case of the mines.//
To be fair, if you've punched a meter of ice through the top 60 centimetres of every square inch of ground, most mines are going to be proper fucked.-- Loris, Sep 21 2020 Oddly, that beautifully concise technical term is not one we've come across in any of the EUMAG journals... we'll draw it to the editors' attention for inclusion in the next issue, if that's all right with you ?
So much more pithy and exact than merely "rendered safe", "defused" or "inerted" ...-- 8th of 7, Sep 21 2020 //EUMAG//
European Masters in Gerontology?-- pertinax, Sep 22 2020 Now just Mines Advisory Group; was European Union Mines Advisory Group during the Bosnia conflict.
<link>-- 8th of 7, Sep 22 2020 "I smell!" - a rat.-- pertinax, Sep 25 2020 <Manuel>
"No, is filigree Siberian hamster... "
<Manuel/>-- 8th of 7, Sep 25 2020 random, halfbakery