UK engineering in 2008

Where on Earth are our engineers this year? They have been involved in some of the greatest international engineering feats of 2008, that’s where.

We look at their involvement with the Large Hadron Collider, the Phoenix Mars Lander, attempts to break the world’s land speed record and in the UK’s ‘Most Successful Games Studio.’ And we see how you can get involved.

Mirrorball Isis

In Oxfordshire, engineers have developed its own technology that uses the laws of physics to harness sub-atomic particles – Isis 2 target station at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

What is Isis 2? Isis 2 is one of the world’s most powerful microscopes.

Costing £200 million, the project has fitted in with facilities already in operation at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Source located at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom..  A second target station will enable the Isis science programme to expand its soft matter, advanced materials and bioscience research.

Isis is a valuable tool for physicists who want to examine matter with unprecedented insight or engineers who may want to examine the working of a hydrogen car, for instance. Up to 40 experiments can run simultaneously now Isis 2 has opened for business this year.

Construction of Isis 2 began in July 2003 and experiments can now be conducted since October of this year.

Isis and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is owned and operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Want to learn more about Isis 2 and even watch it in action, then click here.

Learn how to get involved with Isis and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Visit the Science and Technology Facilities Council.
 

The speeding bullet car

Scientists and engineers at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) and Fluid Gravity Engineering (FGE) are working with previous world land speed record holder Richard Noble to break that record again.

Former RAF pilot Andy Green will defend his current title as the fastest man on land in 2011 as the venture – called the BLOODHOUND Project – aims to reach 1,000 mph. This £10 million project will bring together some of the UK’s top engineers and scientists to build a 12.8m long, 6,422kg, jet and rocket powered vehicle.

NPL scientists have been concentrating on the wheels of the project, which need to rotate at 10,500 rpm without being damaged by the surface they run over. Together with the AWE and FGE, the group are advising on the car wheel and rocket design – the aspects that bring the highest risk to the world record breaking attempt.

The engineers at NPL have also researched a selection of metals and composites that could be used in the design, and the motor has been described as a ‘hybrid’ as it will run on a mixture of solid and liquid fuel.

University of Southampton’s School of Engineering Sciences will bring the Bloodhound SSC supersonic car project into the classroom and lecture theatre. The institution is a world-leader in racing car aerodynamics, engineering design and computing.

Southampton is a key member of the Bloodhound Education Team. This is the core part of the Bloodhound Engineering Adventure - a UK project to stimulate the next generation of scientists and engineers to use what is learned from the project to deliver the low-carbon economy of tomorrow.

To learn more about the effort to engage people in the project, visit www.BLOODHOUNDSSC.com

Phoenix lands on Mars

NASA’s Phoenix Lander landed on Mars on 26 May, 2008, in search of remnants of past and present life. The UK had a significant part to play in this: the University of Bristol and Imperial College London have both provided hardware for the mission.

They were based at NASA’s Arizona Science Operations Centre on landing day where they had a part to play in operating the microscope station.

When the spacecraft landed, Phoenix succeeded in uncovering water on Mars, examining soil samples and also found that a toxin in the soil would make future human existence on the planet unlikely.

The UK engineers had much to do with this analysis thanks to the hardware they built. With a grant from the STFC, the Phoenix team from Imperial College London and the University of Bristol provided a micro-machined silicon substrate which provides a surface on which to hold the dust and soil samples for analysis in the microscope station attached to the Lander.

A mechanical excavation arm will deliver the Martian dust to the surface, which it will then be imaged by an optical microscope.

Now, the Phoenix Mars Lander has come to its end of service, as the US Space Agency shut off the craft’s heaters in an effort to save energy.  It is now thought to have succumbed to the harsh elements on Mars.

But that is not the end of Imperial’s business with Mars. They are part of a team that will develop and fabricate MEMS seismometers for the ESA ExoMars mission to Mars, scheduled for launch in 2013 and the UK MoonLITE mission to Moon. 

Want to be involved with the UK’s work sending high-tech equipment to Mars? Click here for more information.

Top British Games Studio

According to DEVELOP 100 - a website which ranks the world's games development studios based on the revenues their products made at UK retail in 2007, Traveller’s Tales (TT) is the top games studio in the UK and number 10 in the world. Last year, the company took in £27.06 million, and 38 million copies of its games have been sold to date in its 15 year career.

It was formed in 2005 after TT merged with publisher Giant Interactive. Then in 2007 it was acquired by Warner Bros. The first game released as a product of the TT Games Partnership was LEGO Star Wars: The Videogame, which has gone on to sell over three million units worldwide.

This year, TT has released another in the Lego series with Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, Guinness World Records: The Videogame and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. More Lego fun is scheduled for release next year with Lego Harry Potter: The Videogame.

The company employs more than 150 people with a studio in Knutsford, Cheshire.

Want to keep an eye on the British games industry? Click here for all the latest news and top jobs advertised.

 

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