How do you secure a ship 500 metres long and six times heavier than an aircraft carrier to the seafloor for 25 years?
Continue reading Securing Australia’s offshore oil and gas industry, literally
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Leading the quantum computing race
Physicists at the University of New South Wales are leading the race to build computers exponentially faster than any we currently use, according to an assessment published by the scientific journals group, Nature.
Motor races and science labs fuel interest in science
Each year in early July, when its 700 students are on holiday, Townsville State High School becomes the headquarters for a V8 Supercars race.
But before and after the race, Sarah Chapman’s Year 11 science students are hard at work, slopping their way through the nearby mangroves and wading into the neighbouring estuary. The data they collect is then used by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to manage the impact of the race on local estuaries. “The students are really taken by the idea that they are finding out things nobody else knows,” Sarah says.
Continue reading Motor races and science labs fuel interest in science
Inspiring Australia
Over the past three years Australia has established and advanced a unique national engagement model—working with governments at all levels, with science sector agencies and organisations, as well as industry.
No more twinkle, junk and stars, now we know just where you are
Technology that ‘de-twinkles’ stars is being used to pinpoint manmade space junk and avoid devastating collisions like those dramatised in the movie Gravity.
Australian company Electro Optic Systems, based on Mount Stromlo in Canberra, is using adaptive optics and pulsing lasers to locate detritus too small for conventional radar. Ultimately, the company hopes to use similar lasers to remove the debris from orbit.
Adaptive optics helps the pulsing lasers to cut through the Earth’s atmospheric turbulence, which distorts and scatters light, by using a second orange-coloured laser to illuminate sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere.
Continue reading No more twinkle, junk and stars, now we know just where you are
Wombat puts electric rocket through its paces
A new breed of spacecraft engine is undergoing its first indoor test flights, thanks to a giant ‘wombat’ on the outskirts of Australia’s capital.
The Australian National University has developed a plasma thruster that uses electricity to ionise gas and produce thrust, allowing the engine to run for longer and with much less fuel than a chemical rocket.
This makes it ideal for manoeuvring satellites in orbit, or for extended voyages to places like Mars. However, rocket manufacturers need to be sure it works before trusting it on multimillion-dollar satellites.
Continue reading Wombat puts electric rocket through its paces
Mill mapper keeps mines working
If your pepper mill wears out, it’s annoying. But for mines it’s disastrous when their grinders can no longer smash rocks, often costing them $100,000 an hour in downtime.
Now, a three-dimensional laser system, which takes 10 million measurements in 30 minutes, can take over the dangerous work of manually evaluating mining machinery conditions.
Zebedee bounces around, mapping as he goes
Now you can map a mine, cave, building or forest just by walking through it with Zebedee in your hand.
CSIRO scientist Elliot Duff and his colleagues developed a spring-mounted hand-held laser scanner that can make 3D images of spaces previously impossible to map.
Providing the very stuff of protection
From keeping Australian troops safe from explosions, to ensuring military vehicles can maintain flexibility on damaged roads, the Armour Applications Program of the Defence Materials Technology Centre has pioneered high-performance materials.
Mundane passion anchors $20 billion industry
An engineer has credited a passion for the mundane as the driving force behind his geotechnical solutions that have influenced nearly all the oil and gas developments in north-west Western Australia.
The industry is expanding rapidly to meet the demand for natural gas in the growing Asian economies. Mark Randolph has contributed to anchoring the essential infrastructure as the industry moves offshore and into deep waters. He provides the analysis and design of piled foundations and solutions for offshore foundations, anchoring systems and pipelines.
Continue reading Mundane passion anchors $20 billion industry