Engineering at the Speed of Light : From Cold Atoms to Hyperloop

Engineering at the Speed of Light : From Cold Atoms to Hyperloop

The Nehru Science Centre joined the world community of science centres and science Museum networks, who with support from the UNESCO and ICOM are commemorating this day (10th November) as the International Science Center and Science Museum Day (ISCSMD). In our continuing quest to educate our diverse audiences, we celebrated this year’s ISCSMD by organising a special public lecture, “ Engineering at the Speed of Light : From Cold Atoms to Hyperloop” that was delivered by Dr Anita Sengupta to a jam packed 300 plus audience in the 260 capacity auditorium that spanned an extraordinary age group from 5 years old to 80 years young.

Dr Anita Sengupta, an Indian American formerly with NASA, is very well known as the brain behind NASA's Curiosity landing on Mars as well as for her extraordinary feat of being the leader of a team of engineers who worked on the “Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL)” project for NASA. The CAL was carried by the Antares rocket and has been integrated into the International Space Station. She mesmerised the audience with her “rocket speed” lecture that emhasized the significant role that engineers play in bringing the benefits of science to people. She said “the human desire to understand the nature and complexity of the universe has been the mother of invention for all of recorded history”. She further added that “harnessing power of physics to provide prediction, technology, and the scientific method has shaped order to a society that is naturally born of chaos”.

Her richly illustrated lecture highlighted how the discipline of engineering, which she is so extraordinarily passionate about, is continuing to play a pivotal role to benefit human society. She narrated real life examples of her personal journey of leading the development of engineering systems that have travelled to the main asteroid belt, landed on the surface of mars, chilled matter to almost absolute zero, and is now working on a revolutionary form of transportation the Hyperloop, which is destined to revolutionise public transport the world over including in India.

This was her second lecture at our centre, the first of which she had delivered some time in August 2013 just after the success of the Curiosity rower landing on Mars. Dr. Anita Sengupta, an aerospace engineer, pioneered the revolutionary supersonic parachute system that was deployed during the incredibly precise landing of Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity”.

The Cold Atoms Laboratory (CAL), which is now docked on to the International Space Station (ISS), uses lasers to slow atoms until they are motionless, cooling them to temperatures far below than what is possible on Earth. Incidentally, less than a month back the Nehru Science Centre was fortunate to host a Russian Cosmonaut, Michelle Kornienko, who spent almost one full year on the ISS. Highlighting the significance of CAL, Dr Sengupta said “the temperature in the CAL could be 10 billion times colder than the vacuum of space, creating the coldest spot in the universe”. The CAL will help researchers to study and understand the phenomenon of “Bose Einstein Condensate” (BEC), predicted by the work of our very own scientist Dr. Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein in the early 20th century, which occurs just above absolute zero in the microgravity environment. She added “the CAL is intended to provide one of the most sensitive instruments mankind has ever built, which will help scientists and engineers to develop future space-based quantum sensors, which could enable more precise measurements of gravity, magnetic fields and in-space navigation and even help in developing quantum computers”.

Expectedly, the most fascinating -almost sci-fi like- part of her lecture was on the Hyperloop, high speed transportation system, which is destined to revolutionise mass transportation the world over. It was not long ago - February 2018 to be precise- that the Maharashtra CM, Hon. Devendra Fadnavis, signed an MoU with Virgin Hyperloop One, the site of which he had personally inspected during his visit to US, to build the Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop track, which could traverse the distance in just about 20 - 25 minutes. Dr Anita Sengupta is currently working in this exciting frontiers of technology area of Hyperloop super fast public transportation. Dr Anita, stressed on the fact that there has not been a revolutionary change in the transportation system, post the invention of the Aeroplane (1903) by Wright Brothers more than 100 years ago, and the time is now for fast forwarding to the era of Hyperloop transportation. Dr Sengupta said “Hyperloop involves traveling through a vacuum tube/ tunnel in a magnetically levitating pod designed to accommodate 12 to 20 people. She added, “the Hyperloop travel will be smoother than riding on an airplane, which encounters air drag, and people won't be able to tell how fast they are going. She said at full speed, they could go faster than commercial airplanes and that they are aiming to get the pods up to 1100 kilometres per hour.

The Hyperloop high-speed mass transportation concept was floated by an American entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk. The project envisages building a perfect tube in which the specially designed Pods run on the rail lines - in a near perfect vacuum tube - floating above the track using magnetic levitation. The near perfect vacuum ensures extremely low friction and hence high efficiency.

Dr Anita Sengupta ended her hour long lecture with some interesting anecdotes one of which included a monumental error in the statement made by Lord Kelvin who in the year 1895 had said that no machines, heavier than air, can ever be built which can be made to fly, other than balloons. In less than a decade the Wright Brothers working from the cycle shop proved the greatest of scientist to be wrong. She therefore is confident that in the years to come the hyperloop transportation could be a reality. Let us hope so. The lecture ended with an outstanding standing ovation.