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Leaping into the future

By Matthew Knight for CNN
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(CNN) -- "I never think of the future" Albert Einstein once said, "It comes soon enough". But at the beginning of the 21st Century even the great scientist might have been taken aback by the pace of scientific and engineering advances of recent times.

The construction sites, laboratories and space centers of today are all hammering out cast-iron plans for projects for the future. Some of them are already underway.

Egypt's $70 billion Toshka Project (or New Valley Project) -- due to be completed in 2020 -- is turning over 500,000 acres of desert into arable land. Its centerpiece, the Mubarak Pumping Station was switched on in 2005, redirecting water from Lake Nasser towards a new valley transforming the landscape.

In China, on Chongming Island near Shanghai, the "Dongtan development" -- designed and built by the British firm Arup -- will create the world's first "eco-city" which will be completely self-sufficient and have zero greenhouse emissions. When it is completed in 2040 it will be three-quarters the size of Manhattan. More eco-cities are planned.

In the skies above Antarctica the ANITA -- Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna -- experiment is underway. The world's biggest particle detector attached to a giant balloon will float 38km above the earth scanning 1 million cubic km of ice in the hope of detecting ultra-high energy neutrinos (elementary particles). If scientists cannot find them then the understanding of fundamental physics will have to be rewritten.

Just around the corner are a series of initiatives from NASA which will build on their recent engineering successes. The aging Space Shuttle fleet is due to be decommissioned in 2010 with the Orion spacecraft taking over manned space flights in 2012. It is a key part of the proposal to build a manned moon base within the next 20 years.

NASA are also looking forward to making further discoveries on Mars. In August 2007 the Phoenix spacecraft will be launched. When it has landed in the northern polar region, its robotic arms will dig the terrain in search of water and ultimately life on Mars.

As missions probe deeper into space, so do the telescopes. The James Webb Space Telescope will replace the Hubble Space Telescope by the middle of the next decade.

The first commercial space flights are due to start in 2008 with Virgin Galactic offering a sub-orbital flight lasting around 2.5 hours at a cost of $200,000 -- Dennis Tito, the first space tourist paid $20m in 2001. A space hotel built by Bigelow Aerospace hopes to be orbiting the Earth by 2012.

Back on Earth, manufacturers are beginning to confront the emerging consequences of global warming. Behind the scenes, scientists and engineers beaver away finding alternatives which sustain ways of life as well as life itself.

As oil reserves dwindle and temperatures rise, hybrid cars, which run on both electricity and petrol, are becoming more popular with customers. Demand for the Toyota Prius outstripped supply when it was launched in 2004.

In Australia, plans to build the largest solar power plant in the world have been given the green light. The central tower will rise to a height of over 450 meters in northern Victoria, and will deliver 154 megawatts of power. It will be fully operational by 2013.

A Columbia University physicist Dr Klaus Lackner has proposed building forests of "synthetic trees" which he says would look like "goalposts with Venetian blinds". They would draw out carbon dioxide from the air, thus countering carbon emissions.

In the 21st Century, environmental concerns look set to overshadow the political and economic crises that have consumed past generations, making the work of scientists and engineers more vital than ever.

The greatest engineering achievements invoke awe and delight. They remind us of man's ingenuity when confronted with a problem, and encourage all of us to look at the world from a different perspective.

The economies of nations and regions prosper in engineering's wake and propel us all forward towards the groundbreaking designs and inventions of the future.


story.orion.gi.jpg

A model of NASA's Orion spacecraft, which is due to replace the Shuttle fleet.

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