August 29, 2019
ROCKET PLAN
In addition to taming fire and scrawling cryptic paintings onto the walls of caves, early humans loved making weapons from copper. So working with the stuff must not exactly be rocket science ... right? Wrong. Some 12,000 years into humankind’s relationship with the reddish-orange metal, NASA scientists would also come to covet it; copper transfers heat and electricity with ease, meaning that it would be just the thing inside a rocket engine. They had problems the cavemen didn’t, though — namely, that the process of manufacturing copper parts for rocket engines was slow and costly, and resulted in varying levels of quality. What was required to get this long-beloved material off the ground was a uniquely 21st-century technology: 3D printing.
Testing their metal: In a rocket engine’s combustion chamber, copper’s ability to smoothly disperse heat meets its match — fuels that burn up to 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit, hot enough to vaporize any material. NASA engineers Christopher Protz and Paul Gradl turned to 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing. What they sought was a combustion chamber that could be kept at a safe temp with the help of a coolant pumped in through small channels. They were able to realize that design — at least in prototype — with the help of a machine made by Concept Laser, a German maker of 3D printers that’s now part of GE Additive. “The ability to do those complex internal channels is really the key to why we use this technology,” Gradl said. Though he and Protz still have work to do, the engineers are hopeful about the future of 3D printing and space flight — in fact, they received financing through a NASA program designed to fund “game-changing ideas” that could “revolutionize future space missions.”
Will the revolution be 3D-printed? Learn more here.
HEALTH ON WHEELS
Reliable and responsive healthcare is a must along motorcycle race courses. One of the fastest sports on earth, motorcycle racing is decidedly not one of the safest. Just like racers need speedy bikes, clinicians need fast and portable technology to do their jobs. Italy’s Clinica Mobile, the official healthcare partner of the MotoGP and Superbike World Championship has been in this business for 40 years, operating two mobile healthcare units — minihospitals on the backs of trucks — that follow riders through 16 countries across four continents. For the 2019 season — the next race is in Portugal in early September — the clinic welcomed some new tech on board the mobile clinics: two laptop-size, lightweight ultrasound machines from GE Healthcare that can help staff clearly and quickly scan patients for injuries.
Easy riders: “These ultrasound systems allow you to examine and show any lesions on-site and immediately think of a recovery plan,” said Dr. Michele Zasa, Clinica Mobile’s owner and medical director. Called NextGen LOGIQ e, the system also makes it easier to compare images from different scans and monitor drivers during the stages of recovery, which can help doctors tailor those treatment plans. Because the drivers and their crews have access to the clinic almost every race weekend, Zasa says, Clinica Mobile is more like a home away from home than a traveling hospital. “Some of the drivers don’t even go to the family doctor,” he said. “They wait for the race weekend to discuss any problems with us.”
Read more here about the fast-paced world of motorcycle healthcare.
AUTOMATE THIS!
Computers are getting smarter and humans are — well — about the same as ever, except we’re increasingly concerned that robots are coming for our jobs. As writer Faye Flam outlines in a new Bloomberg Opinion column, “Technology will almost inevitably cause a roller coaster of job disruption.” But Flam also points to the results of a new survey, which asked more than 2,000 workers in Europe and North America to imagine their feelings about two different scenarios: being fired and replaced by a younger colleague versus losing a job to a robot. Turns out the robot takeover was much more palatable because it didn’t damage folks’ self-esteem as much. But there is more to the story. “Automation can go smoothly,” Flam writes, “when people don’t feel replaced at all, but rather liberated.”
Shoot for the moon: The stakes of ensuring a smooth transition are high. “People need to feel useful, to feel they matter,” Flam writes. “A job is often a big part of that.” Rather than feeling that they’ve lost work to automation, people can excel when they feel they’ve offloaded some of the more rote tasks — say, data entry — and been freed up for more creative, engaging work. Or maybe we can be liberated “from the tasks needed for survival” and pursue more passion projects, like “putting on plays and sending probes to other planets.” Automation could hold great promise for humans — if only we do it right.
Read more here from Bloomberg Opinion.
— VIDEO OF THE WEEK —
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“We saw the potential of additive manufacturing, where we can make parts in a matter of days or weeks. That was very exciting to us. And NASA was willing to take risks.”
— Paul Gradl, engineer at NASA
Quote: GE Reports. Image: NASA.
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