Original subtitles

[futuristic music]

[narrator] On this episode of How Tech Works

Take a ride down an Olympic-sized set of rapids

that are entirely artificial

designed with cutting-edge skate-park technology.

And...

Try this new suit on for size.

You're going to need it for your next big trip

to Mars.

[futuristic music]

[show intro]

Hi there, I'm Basil Singer

and you are in for a thrill ride

on this week's episode of How Tech Works.

We're gonna take a spin on a vehicle of the future.

Here's a hint: it's got two wheels.

And, we're going to explore

the underground tunnels of Barcelona

without disturbing the peace above ground.

But, first...

when you think of white-water rapids

what comes to mind?

Rafting in Colorado?

The rivers of Zambia, maybe?

Now what if I said, the English countryside?

It's probably not top on your list.

But there's a brand-new artificial white-water river

in north London

and How Tech Works

is gonna be there, to witness

the wild-water course get whipped into shape.

Wow!

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Two years ago, this site was a car park.

But thanks to the London Olympics

this stretch of white-water takes center stage.

It can create an Alpine river

in the middle of Hertfordshire.

[narrator] With the heavy lifting complete

it's now up to these two

to turn messy whitecaps into world-class rapids.

[Simon] So what're we looking at then?

[narrator] Simon Ricketts and Julian Gaspard

know this stretch of riverbed better than anyone.

...over here, pour over-

[narrator] They've spent months building

testing and tweaking every rapid along its length.

Today, they've got their eyes set

on one area in particular.

[upbeat music]

This is the first big bend on the course.

Block walls have already been added

to constrict the flow

but the water moving through is still flat.

It needs bigger drops, faster water, and cleaner eddies.

[Simon] So we're looking to add some blocks into the middle

to create a feature both on this

groin here

and on this one here.

[narrator] The trick? Fix one problem

without causing ten more.

A change can be made at one point in the course

and that affects both downstream of that change

and upstream of the change.

And then

everything that you've worked on so far

becomes null and void

because the level changes so much

that the features change completely.

[narrator] To start, Simon heads to the center's control room.

Here, massive banks of computer equipment

keep the entire system running smoothly

or stop it entirely.

At the touch of a button, the pump stops

and the entire river drains out.

Now, the work crew go in.

The artificial course here

uses a special system called rapid blocks.

Hollow plastic blocks that can be stacked

like giant pieces of Lego

and bolted into special rails in the riverbed.

The blocks can be moved and angled

in any way the guys see fit.

The trial and error has been

is it a single height

a double height

a triple height

how far we constrict it coming in at the sides.

So, what we're doing today

is quite a subtle change, with just a single block going in

and it'll be interesting to see how that changes

from this morning.

[narrator] They've got their fingers crossed

that this simple fix will give the river

the makeover it needs.

Here we go. Let's see how our changes have worked.

[upbeat electronic music]

[narrator] With the pumps turned on

the riverbed starts to fill back up.

[music continues]

In a matter of minutes

the work area is buried beneath the waves.

So as you can see

the depth in the pool here behind me

is much deeper.

It's probably another 70 centimeters deeper.

That's because these blocks here have backed the water up.

The water's coming over those blocks

and it's creating a bit of a V-stopper here.

And then the five that we've put across here

has created a full drop, river-wide

and now we've got a big hole

with a stopper at the back of it.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Comparing the before and after at full flow

the change is obvious

but the guys have one more test.

Upriver, Julian is preparing for action.

[Simon] We always need to make sure

the changes are safe

and it actually works as we think it will

when you're in a boat.

[narrator] It's a big moment

but when you're testing two rapids at a time

it's also a very short one.

In a few seconds, it's all over.

So how was that?

It was great, excellent.

[narrator] This time, it gets the thumbs up.

Of course we are happy when it

when it works

but when it doesn't work, you learn.

[narrator] Working with white water

may be an art as much as a science

but the more these guys learn today

the closer they'll get to rapid perfection.

[upbeat music]

From the north of London

we travel south

all the way to the south of Spain, in fact

to catch up with the European Space Agency's

team of researchers.

You see, the terrain at Spain's Rio Tinto region

resembles our planetary neighbor, Mars.

In other words, it's a perfect place

to test the latest in Martian clothing.

I'm a 38 regular, should anyone care to know.

[mechanical bumps]

[car engine]

[narrator] Human exploration on the red planet

may be questionable

but that's not slowing down these researchers.

[Gernot] I honestly believe

that the first human to walk on Mars is already born

and is maybe right now watching Discovery Channel.

[narrator] Getting to Mars requires at least

a 34 million mile space ride

not a human-friendly feat yet.

But, scientists here say the terrain

at Rio Tinto, Spain, is as close as it gets.

[Gernot] This spot here has kind of magic

because it's got so much potential

to tell us about the way how things work

on a totally different world called Mars.

[narrator] Gernot Groemer is admittedly space-obsessed.

As the president of the Austrian Space Forum

he's spent the past two years

piecing together three thousand parts

to create this one-of-a-kind Martian space suit.

It's also augmenting the capabilities of the astronaut.

And that's a big difference with current space suits

because they don't need that.

[narrator] Urlich Luger is a "quasi-astronaut."

For now, a suit tester

but Urlich still needs to meet all of the medical specs

that the real guns do.

Every time I'm into the suit, I'm very excited

because there's always something new

and something unexpectable.

And that's something which makes it really really great

something no one has done before.

[narrator] It takes four hours and three people

to fit Urlich for his tasks today.

The 45 kilogram suit makes simply wearing it, a workout.

This suit is totally different than anything we've seen before.

If you would take a regular Apollo-type space suit

like they used on the Moon and put it on Mars

it would be dead and gone after a few days.

And our suit is supposed to work for at least a year on Mars

because the next Radio Shack or a Home Depot

that's 380 million kilometers away.

[narrator] With Superman qualities, the suit is designed

to keep the astronaut alive in the harshest of conditions.

The surface temperature on Mars is frigid

minus 113 degrees Celsius in winter

and the warm-up in summer isn't exactly sweltering.

The hottest it gets is zero.

So, the outer layer of the suit is made

with stronger-than-steel Kevlar

and an aluminum coating to keep it light-weight.

Underneath, a wearable life support system.

[Urlich] At the moment

I'm very happy with the head-up display

which is working absolutely great.

And I'm also receiving telemetry data so I can

I can have a look at my own status inside the suit.

[narrator] This suit even has speech recognition

and sensors to measure the physical performance

of the astronaut.

I'm pretty excited for the first experiment.

[narrator] One of today's tasks is maneuvering in the suit

with a prototype rover, the "Eurobot."

Then, Urlich has the finite task of taking soil samples

so Gernot and his team can analyze

contamination on the suit.

They underestimate the dust.

[Gernot] The dust is the natural enemy

of the astronaut, so to say.

It's blocking mechanisms

it's covering the spacesuit.

But the fine granular sizes of the sand here, it's

everywhere on the equipment.

[narrator] Just one of many discoveries made here.

This suit simulator has wowed this crowd.

But there's more work to be done to make it Mars-ready.

[Gernot] And I'm sure people will be walking on Mars

make no mistake. This is a fact that will happen.

I want to tell my grandchildren

you know, this little screw, that's the one I designed.

[futuristic music]

Coming up on How Tech Works

How does it feel to be driving the vehicle of the future?

And tunneling under history.

How do you dig a high-speed train tunnel

directly underneath Barcelona's most cherished buildings?

The answer? Very carefully.

[upbeat electronic music]

[futuristic music]

Welcome back to How Tech Works. I'm Basil Singer.

We head now to Barcelona, in Spain

where they're building a high-speed train line

underground.

This big dig poses many challenges for the engineers

starting with

how the heck do you build a tunnel

right underneath some of the city's

most cherished historical sights

without doing damage to the delicate buildings.

The answer

is right here.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Barcelona is bursting at the seams

with culture and street life.

One of the big draws is architecture

like Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church.

And this building, La Pedrera.

A city this attractive

means there are a lot of tourists

and transportation needs.

That's why they're building a high-speed train tunnel

right through Barcelona, linking Spain to France.

And we're taking you underground

into the heart of things

where engineers are doing everything they can

to protect the city above.

Jose Gomez is responsible for risk control.

We're now at Sardenya Street

where the Sagrada Familia is located.

[narrator] A short distance away, another icon.

We're situated below El Passeig de Gracia

one of the most famous streets in Barcelona.

And to our left is La Pedrera

the second monument designed by Gaudi that our tunnel passes.

As with La Sagrada Familia, our tunnel passes very close by.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] The tunnel is 12 meters wide

running directly beside these buildings.

That means the team is under intense scrutiny

from media, government

even UNESCO, which protects the World Heritage sites.

Construction has been an exercise in extreme caution.

There's no room for human error here

no possibility for anything that could cause

problems on the surface.

[narrator] So far, they've carved five kilometers

through the earth.

They've got 200 meters more to go

on this section of the line.

This is how they're chewing through the earth

with a Tunnel-Boring Machine, or TBM.

We're inside a tunnel-boring machine

designed to withstand ground pressure.

These are some of the 18 motors.

Between the cutting wheel and this chamber is where

the excavated material is collected.

[narrator] The machine is breaking new ground

not just under city streets

but under existing subway and rail lines.

This particular Tunnel Boring Machine

is for pressure-sensitive earth

more specifically for soil, not hard rock.

[narrator] As the machine bores through the earth

there's a pressure difference between the leading edge

the cutting wheel

and this chamber

where the machine's course is set and monitored.

This is a dynamic project running 24 hours a day.

Actions need to be immediate.

[narrator] Pressure is highest at the front.

That's why they hire diving experts

to do maintenance on the cutting head.

These men are trained, quite literally

in high-pressure situations.

Today, the divers are changing bits on the cutting head.

Here, you can see the difference between a new cutting tool

and a tool worn out by very abrasive terrain.

[narrator] Pressure sensors at the front

of the cutting head monitor how much weight

pressure and volume is being applied there.

Jose and his team

can track progress in real time on monitors

not just in the tunnel, but directly from their desks.

We see what the pilot is seeing.

We have a multidisciplinary team

with geologists, people who have expertise in risk control.

[narrator] Engineers test for vibrations at ground level.

Sensors at street level can detect shifts in the earth.

So far, so good.

The ground has subsided just two millimeters.

There's never before been a machine this

big in Barcelona

which has had so little impact on the surface.

The street level changes are not only minimal

they guarantee to the people of Barcelona that

there has been no damage to the structure

of La Sagrada Familia.

[narrator] The Tunnel-Boring Machine

cuts through the last 200 meters

and achieves breakthrough.

[Jose] It's safe to say that the results have been

even better than we'd hoped

and we aimed to do it

very well.

[narrator] It looks like the buildings are safe

and the tunnel project is on track

to bring more visitors to Barcelona.

[futuristic music]

And finally, I thought I'd introduce to you

something built for all you speed demons, but

also for you back seat drivers.

It might sound unusual, and it is

but this is a machine of the very near future

that marries high-speed thrills on two wheels

with extreme safety. Have a look.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] Sleekly designed with game-changing technology

this two-wheeled

fully-enclosed

electric vehicle

is called the C1.

Take a good look.

If innovator Danny Kim has his way

the C1 will be just the revelation

that up-ends the way we get around.

[Danny] If you look at the real behavior patterns of

commuters, you will realize that 70% or most people drive alone.

The average commute is 48 miles

and most people don't take more than just

a briefcase or maybe a couple of bags of groceries.

[narrator] Kim is founder and CEO of Lit Motors

a gutsy start-up with a two-wheeled mandate.

So Lit Motors is a sustainable transportation company.

We basically see that two-wheeled vehicles

are the future of

transportation for sustainability.

Yeah, I like that.

[narrator] His goals?

Give two-wheelers a make-over.

[Danny] No one's really innovating in the architecture

of scooters or motorcycles.

We can bring a lot of value and a lot of fun

to sustainable transportation.

[narrator] His small design and engineering team

cut their teeth on this

a scooter, that's cargo-friendly.

[upbeat music]

[Danny] The cargo scooter is magic.

It's the pickup truck

for developing countries.

You can put a 22 by 22 inch box inside.

[narrator] This ride is fully electric

and can hit 35 miles an hour.

[Danny] Riding the scooter's great.

It's like riding an electric stallion.

That's probably the best way to describe it.

Or unicorn, if you prefer.

[narrator] But don't try this with your unicorn.

Unicorns can't do this.

[Danny] The folding's great, it loses 15% of its footprint.

[upbeat music]

50% of the scooter actually just kind of

disappears into thin air.

[narrator] Kim got even more ambitious with his next redesign

which is currently in development.

The C1 basically takes the efficiency and the

romance of a motorcycle and combines it with

the safety and comfort of a traditional car.

It's going to be wicked fast.

It's 120 miles per hour.

This really handles like a car.

You sit in it like a car.

You drive it like a car.

[narrator] But what makes this two-wheeler truly exceptional

is that it will also be self-balancing.

No need to put your feet down

and un-tippable

thanks to Lit Motors' patented gyroscopic-based technology.

[Danny] The gyroscope

dictates the tilt and lean of the vehicle at all times.

So this vehicle can drift

which is really unprecedented

for most motorcycles.

In the case of an accident, the vehicle

would skid, rather than flip over

so it's exponentially safer.

[man] Here's an off-the-shelf electric scooter thing for kids

that we retrofitted

steering on

and then we're just taking advantage of the

the stock motor for driving it forwards and backwards.

Sorry, it's classified.

So inside the box is

our core technology.

It's inside a box because it's

proprietary and we want to

keep a hold on our secrets, but

the basic concept is, there is a

a gyro spinning a flywheel, and a number of

sensors to determine

kind of what direction it's oriented and we use that

with a laptop to

to work on prototyping the

balancing software

and algorithms

for...

keeping this thing upright.

[narrator] Testing their technology under

different conditions

is crucial to perfecting it.

[man] I would like to get up to seven.

We'll have to play with it.

[narrator] Today, they hit the ice.

[man] Right now, we're gonna see how it responds to

to side-impact collisions, from a safety standpoint, so

we're out on the ice rink

to simulate, like if you are in an icy

in winter environment if you

get hit by something.

[narrator] Time to see if these conditions

will impact their stability system.

They start by testing its self-balancing feature.

I'm looking at a number of different things.

I'm looking at the… what condition the battery is in

so we can see how it's reacting over time

at how much power the flywheel's drawing

and then general information about the flywheel.

[narrator] Despite the slippery surface, it performs well.

Time to step things up.

Whew.

Will the scooter tip or glide on impact?

Here I go.

[upbeat music]

It's holding up really well.

It's exactly what we expected it to do

we expected it to be able to hit and slide sideways

as opposed to just falling over.

[narrator] It glides

reinforcing what they already know.

They are on to something pretty big.

[Danny] For me it's

it's incredibly exciting. I've been working on this for

dreaming about this for the last seven years

so being this close is pretty exciting.

[upbeat music]

[futuristic music]

I was just thinking about taking that

non-tipping technology

to the next level. No more training wheels

on kids' bicycles, no more crashes

at the racetrack, the possibilities are endless.

Anyway, that's all the time we've got.

Thank you very much for watching How Tech Works.

Until the next one, I'm Basil Singer.

[upbeat ending music]