The Current Age

 

The Current Age

It is a new era, an era waiting for us. In this very short we have managed to achieve a lot and this just a small glimpse of ,what we all hope will be, a glorious new chapter in the story of mankind.

1. Large Hadron Collider

LHC, one of the most sophisticated colliders in existence, is the culmination of all the efforts of the brightest minds on our planet for 10 long years. It came into service in 2008 and has been helping us make massive strides on the sub-atomic level, giving us a much better understanding of how our world works.

LHC is used to observe the collisions between particles that are accelerated to speeds near the speed of light and at tmeperatures as low as -273^oC. It is fascinating to know that this collider has a circumference of 27 kilometers!

Images of the Higgs boson particle produced during a collision

 

The Higgs particle was confirmed in March 2013, which gave us the understanding of particles that are much smaller than even the electrons. It is really a marvel that the conformation of the existence of this particle is what changed our understanding of the universe.

2. Mars’ Opportunity and Curiosity rovers

Exploration is always what made humanity grow and the exploration of Mars is the next huge milestone for humanity. Till date, the efforts of countless engineers has given shape to two rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity. Opportunity landed in 2004 with an estimated life-span of 90 Martian days, but is still operational 9 years later thanks to the amazing team of engineers behind it. Curiosity followed suit, with a much bigger goal, to assess the compatibility of Mars for human habitation. Curiosity has successfully found evidence of water trapped in Martian soil.

3. Sky Crane

A mechanical marvel, the Sky Crane is a deployment device used to assist the descent of rovers on to Martian surface. Sky Crane hooks on to a rover and protects it from the heat during atmospheric entry, helps steer during descent and reduce ethe velocity to near zero and then gently achieve touchdown. It uses a combination of parachutes and thrusters to achieve this feat.

“Sky Crane [is a top advancement], simply because we can look up into the night, and although you can’t see it, know there’s a planet out there in that sort of direction- that uses math and equations derived on Earth, and altering those to the environment of Mars with a different gravity and atmosphere – and know that we lobbed a probe up there and nailed it,” says Ben Reade, Mechanical Engineering Student at Edinburgh Napier University.

4. Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam built on the Yangtze River, the longest river in Eurasia near the town of Sandouping, China. It is a monumental landmark as it is the largest power plant on planet earth, producing a whopping 22,500 MW and all of this is clean, green and renewable energy. Costing an eye watering $62 billion, it has set a new standard for all future power plants.

5. Grasshopper rockets’ landing system

SpaceX’s ingenious reusable launch system program has designed a launch system that is reusable upon landing in order to facilitate affordable commercial spaceflight. Unlike traditional rockets, which use single use boosters, the Grasshopper landing system can be reused multiple times to reduce the cost, pollution and the time spent on making more boosters.

 In conclusion, mechanical engineering has played a pivotal role in all of history. The contributions of mechanical engineers is what is powering today's world. Starting from the IC engines all the way to Liquid propulsion technology in rockets has helped humanity take great strides. It has not ended yet, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, if successful, will help humanity tap into almost limitless energy. Mechanical engineering developed the engine that powers today's world and is developing the reactor to power our future.