Articles
He is ready for lift-off; what he’s waiting for are the rockets to take him. His name is Per Wimmer, and for years now he’s been training to be a space tourist – spinning in a centrifuge, floating in zero gravity on a parabolic flight and piloting Russian military jets.
The tickets he bought are a tad more expensive than what you and I would probably pay for several years of holiday on Earth. But if Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Nasa, the European Space Agency and the rest of the space crowd have their way, going to space will soon be as routine as hitching a ride to your grandmother’s house in the countryside.
However, to achieve that, money must meet science and engineering. It must get cheaper to send a rocket into space – and this is what we’re looking at in our cover feature on reusable rockets. Ditching heaps of burning metal into the ocean may soon be a thing of the past, with SpaceX re-flying its Falcon 9 for the first time in April, all the way to the orbit and back. Yes, Space Shuttles were also reusable, but incredibly costly to maintain. That’s why reusing rockets on the cheap and for multiple flights is the next space frontier.
Engineers are trying to conquer other problems too, of course, many much smaller and closer to home. Summer is around the corner, a stark reminder that honeybees are disappearing in huge numbers. In this issue, we look at how researchers and engineers hope that new materials can protect beehives from deadly parasites, and – if all fails – whether we can dispatch tiny drones to work alongside bees and cross-pollinate flowers, to ensure we actually have food on the table.
Then there is the d-word: ‘diesel’ has become a dirty word, so we investigate whether the diesel engine can scramble out of the hole it has fallen in. We also examine how the internet is helping people with mental health issues, and ponder whether digital technology is always the best way to go. Finally, we take a critical look at the latest developments in the world of batteries.
As we went to print, the world’s largest industry fair, Hannover Messe, was opening its doors. We have a reporter on location, for a first-hand look at top trends such as collaborative robots, hydrogen fuel cells, bridging the gap with human-centric biomimicry in industrial design, challenges of digitising European industry, and technology solutions that protect the oceans, to name but a few. Watch out for more detailed coverage – online and in our next few issues.
You’ll also notice that we are evolving the format of PE magazine. I hope that you will like our new column, Future Forward, which looks at the cutting edge of transport technologies – from rail to cars to Hyperloop and beyond. We are also introducing a monthly page to take the Industry Pulse. Then there is The Machine, where we zoom in on one specific engineering breakthrough. Finally, in the Research Edge, we showcase groundbreaking developments in the areas of technology, engineering and applied science.
As always, I’m looking forward to your feedback and comments as we explore the world of engineering.