Lesson Overview: We went through three presentations. The first one on flight technology. The second on space junk and the third was my group's presentation on land space technologies.
Interesting Ideas / Observations:
Having never heard of space junk before, I found the second presentation on the need to clean up space junk extremely though-provoking. The junk consists of stuff ranging from spent rocket stages and defunct satellites to explosion and collision fragments. The observation is disturbing. We, as humans, have not only polluted our earth, but even the 'infinite' space that surrounds our world. It shows just how unsustainable the habits of humans are.
Moving on to my group, THE SPACEMEN's, presentation. I feel that we have included most of our important future technologies during our presentation. I would, therefore, like to go into deeper detail on two of our technologies to provide more efficient use of landspace.
The straddling bus: There is great potential in applying this technology in Singapore. Presently, our buses take up large spaces on roads. We have even set aside a whole lane, named the 'bus lane', solely for buses during certain hours of the day. Imagine if we could switch all buses to straddling buses. These buses will not require road space at all, as they will straddle over the road. Bus lanes can be abolished providing more lanes, and road space, for small passenger cars.
Venturing Underground: By building upwards (increasing the height of skyscrapers), we will always be limited by a height limit. In certain countries where wind speeds are higher, this height limit be lower. So imagine if we could venture underground, committing certain land functions underground altogether. Imagine a entirely underground transportation network. Your home is connected to SMU via a series of complex tunnels. We can then free up top land for land functions that require sunlight or other topsoil land functions, for example the harnessing of solar and wind energy.
Finally, there is another technology that could hold great potential for the future of expanding land space. Underwater homes. Presently, Istanbul has developed plans to build an underwater hotel - the poseidon hotel.
75% of the earth is covered with water. Wouldn't it be great if we could venture into this space as well?
Key Takeaways: We need to be change leaders. In each of our different aspects of study for our group presentations, we have demonstrated our abilities to think 'out of the box'. To come up with ideas that holds the potential to change the future. To not be afraid to come up with ideas that no one has though of, or appears feasible. Underwater hotels may seem outrageously absurd but look what Istanbul and Dubai are planning currently.
Personal Ratings: A fruitful lesson with lots of insights. I managed to gain valuable knowledge on the various different topics that the other groups presented.
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