Digital Twins, Solar carpets and Hypersonic Hydrogen Flights

April 6

This week we will investigate the emerging use of Digital Twins to manage machines, process and eventually ourselves. We examine a new hydrogen powered hypersonic jet that is being developed to change the way we travel. We discover a new machine that can lay a carpet of solar panels in between railway tracks and finally we look at the flattest ever explosion that we have found in space.

Digital Twins

You may have heard about the concept of Digital Twins recently. It is creeping into the language when talking about technology and how we can use technology to better manage physical objects. A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or system that will span the lifecycle of the object or system. It is updated with real time data and uses simulation via machine learning algorithms to help with decision making on maintenance and potential improvements.

The City of Barcelona is developing a digital twin of the city to help with simulating the impact of urban design changes. Simulations of changes to streets, trains stops, bus stops, public spaces and other parts of our urban environment will allow city planners to envisage the impact of their plans prior to implementation.

Digital twins were first proposed in 1991 however they are now being developed and used more often as software capabilities and computational power increases. Modeling of buildings, bridges and other complex engineering structures helps with asset Management and early detection of problems. Other examples include mechanically complex objects such as jet engines and power generation equipment. Digital twins are also used in the streamlining of manufacturing projects.

In the future we will no doubt have our own digital twin. As wearable devices provide more and more feedback on how our bodies are operating. By combining real time data with population data a digital twin can be used to run a range of simulations to aid early detection of a range of health problems. Like real life twins, our digital twins may become vital to our well being.

Hypersonic Hydrogen Flights

Swiss start up, Destinus is developing a hydrogen powered jet that can travel from Europe to Australia in just over 4 hours. They have built a prototype and completed successful subsonic test flights in Switzerland. The Spanish Ministry of Science has now stepped in to help out via provision of funding for more research and development.

A variety of Spanish companies have recently joined the development effort via the 27 million euro funding package. The winged jet is powered by liquid hydrogen and can take off from the ground before flying at an altitude of 60 kilometers before coming in to land. The autonomous plane would fly at Mach 15 however it would remain below the Karman line (the point in the atmosphere commonly referred to as the edge of space due to the thinness of the atmosphere, approximately 100 kilometers above the earth’s surface).

A team at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have made 3D printed catalysts that actively cool the surface of the plane which otherwise heats up at high speed. The height of the flight will mean that the sonic boom heard on the ground would be a fraction of the noise created by low altitude jet fighters.

The team hopes to test a prototype with dual hydrogen engines later this year. The initial commercial configuration will be to carry 1 ton of cargo, most likely emergency cargo, perishable goods (e.g. isotopes with short half lives for cancer treatments) or human organs for transplant. There are still many technical and regulatory hurdles to overcome.

Solar Panel Carpet

Another Swiss startup, Sunways have developed a mechanical device to deploy and remove solar panels between railway tracks. Solar panels laid between the tracks have no visual or environmental impact. The power can be transmitted easily to the power grid and used to power households along the train line.

There are 5,317 kilometers of rail in Switzerland where rail with solar panels might be possible. That would allow approximately 760 football fields of solar which would generate 1 terawatt hour or 2% of the overall electricity demand in Switzerland each year. The company believes that up to 50% of the world’s railways could be equipped with the system.

A Flat Explosion in Space

A team from the University of Sheffield in the UK has discovered a flat explosion in space. Approximately 180 Million light years from earth the explosion in the shape of a disc is the same size as our solar system. It is massive!

The type of explosion is known as a bright Fast Blue Optical Transient (FBOT). The first FBOT was only observed in 2018 and given the nickname “the cow”. There is also an FBOT known as “the koala”.

The team discovered this explosion by chance. They first noticed a flash of polarized light and were able to measure the polarization of the blast. The telescope in Liverpool used by the team is only 2 meters in diameter however by studying the polarization they were able to reconstruct the shape as if the telescope was 750 kilometers in diameter.

FBOT’s are thought to be exploding stars however they don’t behave like exploding stars. They are over 100 times brighter and exploding stars appear to always explode spherically. Scientists have several theories as to why these explosions are flat however the current official classification for this type of explosion is “weird”.

Paying it Forward

If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.

If you have any questions or comments please comment below.

I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.

Till next week.