This is very strange

Gareth Slee wrote:



A method of training soldiers how to relate map data to a real
landscape?



How though, exactly? If you go walking around in it you'll hurt the
model, and there doesn't seem to be any obvious point to observe it from
the air near the model.
I can think of one possible use, but it's fairly way-out: With padded
shoes on, crew put tiny models of people and military equipment on the
model at various places. A photo is then taken from an aircraft of some
sort (helicopter?) flying over the model which mimics the resolution of
a Chinese reconsat. This photo is then used to train Chinese satellite
photo interpreters in how to recognize things on the ground in a
controlled manner.

Pat

Pat Flannery wrote:

How though, exactly? If you go walking around in it you'll hurt the
model,

Why do you think that? Probably made out of concrete. The scale is
interesting: a 5000 foot peak works out at 10 foot high on the ground,
so lots of fun scrambling around...

I can think of one possible use, but it's fairly way-out: With padded

I think it's simply a terrain model for military commanders to work
out their battle plans. Same as people have been doing for thousands
of years.

Mary Pegg wrote:

Why do you think that? Probably made out of concrete. The scale is
interesting: a 5000 foot peak works out at 10 foot high on the ground,
so lots of fun scrambling around...


Yeah but there's no particular reason to make it that big, if you want
to train troops, the best size would be something around twenty feet on
a side so you could indicate details from the side with a pointer stick.
Also, can you imagine what walking on it would be like? Assuming the
vertical scale is in proportion to the horizontal, your trainees would
be constantly tripping over one mountain, and caving their heads in on
another one around half a scale mile away. ;-)



I can think of one possible use, but it's fairly way-out: With padded



I think it's simply a terrain model for military commanders to work
out their battle plans. Same as people have been doing for thousands
of years.



On far, far smaller models...you know, something you can put indoors.
I find the fact that it's outdoors very interesting; not only does this
mean that you have to make it weatherproof, but it means that the sun
will strike it during the day in the same way that it would strike the
actual terrain, with all the same lighting effects.
I haven't checked, but is this model at the same latitude as the area it
portrays? If that's the case, then it's almost certainly used in some
way that involves different illumination levels and shadow geometries
from the sun in the same way the actual terrain does.

Pat

On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 02:52:34 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:

I haven't checked, but is this model at the same latitude as the area it
portrays? If that's the case, then it's almost certainly used in some
way that involves different illumination levels and shadow geometries
from the sun in the same way the actual terrain does.

....I can see it now:

"Honorable pilot, you have crashed the simulator. You have damaged the
model we painstakingly carved from the land itself. Kim Il Jong has
personally ordered you to be executed for your treason!"

OM
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OM wrote:

s


from the sun in the same way the actual terrain does.

...I can see it now:

"Honorable pilot, you have crashed the simulator. You have damaged the
model we painstakingly carved from the land itself. Kim Il Jong has
personally ordered you to be executed for your treason!"



It's Chinese...you know, made out of dried egg noodles.
In North Korea it would have been made out of ground human bone.

Pat

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
Pat Flannery wrote:

How though, exactly? If you go walking around in it you'll hurt the
model,

Why do you think that? Probably made out of concrete. The scale is
interesting: a 5000 foot peak works out at 10 foot high on the ground,
so lots of fun scrambling around...

I can think of one possible use, but it's fairly way-out: With padded

I think it's simply a terrain model for military commanders to work
out their battle plans. Same as people have been doing for thousands
of years.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't use computers for it though...

Ami Silberman wrote:

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
I think it's simply a terrain model for military commanders to work
out their battle plans. Same as people have been doing for thousands
of years.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't use computers for it though...

It's better, and cheaper?

--
New email address, backwards: com dot ntlworld usual.thing.here marypegg

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
Ami Silberman wrote:

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
I think it's simply a terrain model for military commanders to work
out their battle plans. Same as people have been doing for thousands
of years.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't use computers for it though...

It's better, and cheaper?

--
New email address, backwards: com dot ntlworld usual.thing.here marypegg

The computers are probably cheaper for most purposes -- I would assume that
the PRC has some form of computer-aided terrain analysis (Google Earth if
nothing else), which would be much more flexible than setting up such a
large topographic whatever it is for a specific location.

I'm kind of with Pat here -- its probably for some sort of training. It
might be for prototyping some sort of automated imaging, or something else
that you really need that sort of fidelity, including the ability to zoom in
very, very close, and the sort of accurate imagery that might not be
feasible without a physical model. It is still puzzling though.

Ami Silberman wrote:

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
Ami Silberman wrote:

"Mary Pegg" wrote in message
...
I think it's simply a terrain model for military commanders to work
out their battle plans. Same as people have been doing for thousands
of years.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't use computers for it though...

It's better, and cheaper?


The computers are probably cheaper for most purposes -- I would assume

If you've got a million conscripts that you need to keep busy?

--
New email address, backwards: com dot ntlworld usual.thing.here marypegg

Ami Silberman wrote:

I can't imagine that they wouldn't use computers for it though...
If you were doing it today. However, AFAIK, we don't know when this
thing was constructed. If it is painted concrete, it could well have
been built in the '60s for all we know.

The reg article mentioned pilot training as a possible use. That still
seems pretty strange, but at the scale it is built, a person walking
around on foot would have a perspective fairly similar to that of a low
flying aircraft in the real place. If you wanted your pilots to
familiarize themselves the landscape, without risking them straying
into hostile airspace, or alerting them to the fact that you are
planning something in that area, this seems like a vaguely plausible
method. Still very strange to spend so much effort modeling one small
area.