QUESTION: Can you build a hurriance proof house???

In this episode of SmashLab which originally aired back on January 23rd, the team set out to build a hurricane-proof house and end up using carbon fiber to ‘wrap’ a mobile home which subsequently withstand the force of a 140mph wind from a jet aircraft exhaust.

The mobile home rolls over under the most extreme wind forces due to poor anchoring by the team - but remains intact. They use an air cannon to fire debris at the mobile home - which is lightly damaged by the debris (and flipped upside down due to a faulty tether).

The cost-feasibility of applying costly carbon fiber to mobile homes, built expressly with low cost in mind, is not adequately explored.

In this episode of SmashLab, which originally aired on August 5th, the team takes a trip high into the hills of the California Mountains to see what happens when your car actually goes over a cliff.

We know in Hollywood, when a car goes over the edge it blows up into a million pieces. SmashLab is gonna prove that this actually doesn’t happen, but it does get “smashed up” and wrecked into a ball.

When a car goes over the edge, the front fender catches the dirt causing the car to flip over into a series of rolls and then causing the car  to come to a wreckage at the end of the ravine. If anyone had been inside the chances of survival would be virtually zero. They want to prevent people from dying in this episode so Chuck and Gadget design exterior airbags for the car.

Watch the promo commerical for the new season below.

The new season of Discovery Channel’s Smash Lab began on Tuesday, August 5th at 10PM ET/PT. Check below for the upcoming episodes that will air during the month of August.

Episode 1: Tuesday, August 5th 10-11PM
Its the middle of winter and a pregnant couple are stranded in a snow drift. To help them escape Chuck and Gadget try out a jet-powered snow plough while Nat and Deanne prototype hot air balloons.

Episode 2: Tuesday, August 12th 10-11PM ET/PT
Chuck and Gadget will devise exterior air bags for those Hollywood episodes where you see a speeding car plummeting off a ravine and bursting into flames.

Episode 3: Tuesday, August 19th 10-11PM ET/PT
What does it take to make a car that survives a front impact smash and a T-Bone crunch at 55MPH? The team tries out reactive armour technology and makes the ultimate crash proof car.

Episode 4: Tuesday, August 26th 10-11PM ET/PT
Chuck and Gadget devise a way to jam the drive whiles from a stolen 18 wheeler.

Image Source: Discovery Networks

Discovery Channel’s SMASH LAB returns for its second season beginning Tuesday, August 5th. The episodes will air on Tuesday nights at 10PM ET/PT.

For those of you that are SMASH LAB virgins, its kinda similar to Mythbusters in that the each week the crew members spend alot of time testing and breaking things. But the real deal about the show is that they try to come up with better solutions to issues by tackling engineering problems that could have everyday applications.

Image Source: Discovery Channel - Michael McDermott

In this episode of SmashLab which aired on Discovery Channel on April 2, 2008, the team uses ways to escape speedboat crashes with a parachute. First Deanne and the guys tried to use a parachute to escape a car crash. Second the gang tried to deploy an underwater chute to slow down one boat before it crashed into another. The theory was to give people time to escape a head-on collision with another boat before the first one crashed into it.

Watch the full episode below courtesy of itunes and see how they fared in the test phase.

This episode of Smash Lab aired back on March 23rd.

The Challenge: Use team would use torpedo technology to design a  manned Coast Guard lifeboat that can be dropped onto an ocean rescue scene from a long-range plane in a matter of minutes.

The Material: A phenomenon called supercavitation, where a bubble is formed behind an object that travels through water at a high rate of speed. The bubble sheaths the vessel in an armor of water vapor, reducing its drag by as much as 70 percent, possibly enabling a rescue boat to be dropped straight out of an airplane and survive the impact with the water.

Image Source: Stafano Paltero

So I know that I may have previously reported that I was angry that Smash Lab didn’t get its due respect for Alaska Week. But I’m happy to report that my spirits have been lifted. No, the Smash Lab guys didn’t get reinstated for Alaska Week, but I did find out they they do have their own VIDEO GAME. Its the 3rd most popular video game of the Discovery Channels website and I got the chance to play it today and its AWESOME. Its called Smash Test It!

If you’re interested in the game and are a big fan of Smash Lab visit the website here: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/smash-lab/game/game.html

Photo credit: Discovery Channel/Stefano Paltera

So once again one of my favorite shows on Discovery Channels gets the shaft. Well not literally, but I’m a little bummed that Smash Lab didn’t get one single new episode for this whole Alaska Week thing that Discovery is kicking off starting April 20th.

I know the team at Smash Lab are no MythBusters by any means, but come on…there were so many things that they could’ve had the Smash Lab guys test out. They could’ve  had then do something with the glaciers, like flood proofing a house (with all the melting glaciers and all). Or how about that forest fire episode that aired back in February where they tired to flame-proof a house. That would have been a cool one to do. Oh well!!!

OK, so all my Smash Lab fans send me some comments about what you would have liked to seen for the team do during Alaska Week.

In this episode of Smash Lab Deanne and the crew decides to test if you can use CO2 fire extinguishers to stop criminals in a high speed chase. It seems like alot of the Smash Lab experiments are surrounded around this concept. Remember the Fluidized Sand episode?This episode seems pretty simple and there is alot that they could do, like use tools that cops and SWAT teams already have. But hey, I guess they are trying to rival Mythbusters. What did you guys think of this episode?

Image Photographer: Stefano Paltera

In this episode of Smash Lab the gang wants to test out if they can foil a bank robbery by stopping the get away car with Fluidized Sand. The concept of fluidized sand is that you can stop people and can foil crimes. Technology can be used in a number of ways  and circumstances. The assignment is to make a sand trap invisivle and cover with bricks and attempt to sink a bank robber and his get away truck.

Will it work? Or not? Let me know your thoughts?

Will a sand barrier be enough to stop a person?