THE ART & DESIGN OF BLOWING UP EVIL

The Mine Kafon Ball, the Hassanis’ first invention, is a large wind-powered device, heavy enough to detonate landmines as it rolls across the ground.

The brothers founded Mine Kafon, a company to further develop innovative solutions aimed at landmines and other unexploded weapons left behind after wars and conflicts.

Unexploded ordnance (UXO), unexploded bombs (UXBs), or explosive remnants of war (ERW) are explosive weapons (bombs, shells, grenades, landmines, naval mines, cluster munition, etc.) that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, sometimes many decades after wars or conflicts are over.

Mine Kafon is working with disruptive technologies to change how de-mining efforts are undertaken, making clearance faster, safer, cheaper and easier to implement.

The Hassani brothers have drawn from their own childhoods for inspiration and ideas. They grew up on the edge of Kabul, in a little town called Qasaba, in a house that backed on to an active minefield, where they experienced the horrors of land-mines from an early age.

The children would play around the minefields with homemade, wind-powered toys. If their toys blew onto a minefield, they were lost forever as it was too dangerous to retrieve them. Many friends of the brothers’ friends were injured or killed by landmines.

During the Afghan civil war, the brothers moved more than 40 times through different countries, eventually settling in the Netherlands.

Motivated to develop new creative solutions, Massoud pursued a career in Industrial Design. Inspired by nature and his childhood wind-powered toys, he first conceived of the Mine Kafon Ball as a wind-powered art piece, in 2011. He and his brother developed it into a legitimate mine-clearing device.

The Mine Kafon Ball, named after “kafondan,” which means “something that explodes,” in the Hassani’s native Dari language, is approximately the height and weight of the average man, allowing it to trigger landmines as it rolls across them. It looks like a giant beautiful dandelion puffball.

The core is made of a 17kg iron casing, surrounded by dozens of low-cost bamboo legs; each capped with specially designed compliant plastic “feet” which can adapt to rough terrains. It catches the wind and rolls across the land. It is equipped with a GPS unit that maps the route the it has taken, allowing data to be utilized by local communities and others.

The Mine Kafon Ball showcased how design, driven by functionality, environment, and artistry, can educate, empower, and inspire more innovative solutions.

The project won a series of international awards and successfully helped raise awareness for world mine aid through a number of mainstream media outlets.

Mine Kafon has now expanded into a progressive R&D Lab. The Mine Kafon Lab team is now ready to present the “MKD” project – an innovative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) system to aid in mine clearance.

Surveying and clearing areas from UXOs continues to be expensive and dangerous. The recently designed Mine Kafon Vento drone, is a small, low cost open source surveying and mapping drone that helps to locate landmines safely, from the air. It helps in finding remote mines that Google Earth hasn’t been able to map yet. Its simple, functional design makes it easy to repair, with 3D printed casing, keeping upkeep costs low.

The brothers hope their tools can be useful for governments and organizations involved in clearance activities. The mapping tools provide up-to-date information on contaminated and cleared areas. Local people can upload photos and access the database.

Once an industrial scale of production is achieved, a Mine Kafon Ball could cost as little as 40 dollars to produce, whereas current demining methods and materials can cost as much as a thousand dollars per mine. Hassani has been testing Mine Kafon with the Dutch army. They hope that the world can be cleared of all landmines within the next ten years.

A few months after Princess Diana’s, death in August 1997, Britain signed the Ottawa Treaty banning landmines. Two decades later, 162 nations have signed the treaty, but 34 have not --- most notable exceptions are the United States, Russia, and China.

Now the global community has a new campaign, Landmine Free 2025, sponsored by Halo Trust, championed by Prince Harry, which calls for every country on the planet to be rid of landmines by that deadline. Check out his recent speech at Kensington Palace to commemorate the anniversary of his mom's visit to Angola.

With tight funding and overwhelming need, Mine Kafon innovations are making a difference, but the cause needs even more help. You can donate to Halo Trust here.

Read more about Beautiful Danger all this week on BeautifulNow, including 10 Beautiful Dangerous Places to Visit Now and Crazy. Badass. Beautiful Climbs. And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Wellness, Impact, Nature/Science, Food, Arts/Design, and Travel, Daily Fix posts.

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1. Image: “Mine Kafon Ball.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
2. Image: “Mine Kafon Ball.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
3. Image: “Mine Kafon Ball.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
4. Image: “Mine Kafon Ball.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
5. Image: “Mine Kafon Balls.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
6. Image: “Mine Kafon Ball.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
7. Image: “Mine Kafon Ball.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
8. Image: “Mine Kafon Ball.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
9. Image: “Vento Mine Kafon Drone.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
10. Image: “Destiny Mine Kafon Drone.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
11. Image: Google Earth Map showing locations of landmines. Courtesy ofGoogle Earth.
12. Image: Princess Diana at Angola landmine field. Courtesy of Halo Trust.
13. Image: Prince Harry speaks at Halo Trust, Landmine Free 2025 event. Courtesy of Halo Trust.
14. Image: Princess Diana with a landmine victim. Courtesy of Kensington Palace.
15. Image: “Manta Ray Mine Kafon Drone.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.
16. Image: “Vento Mine Kafon Drone.” Designed & created by Massoud Hassani. Courtesy of Mine Kafon.