TechCentral TechCentral (main feed)

Interview: Denel Spaceteq engineer Jonathan Lun

Loading player...
On this episode of the TechCentral podcast, we chat to South African space engineer Jonathan Lun about being named winner of Singularity University's Global Impact Challenge Southern Africa for 2017. As part of his prize, Lun will travel to the US, where he will interact with some of the world’s greatest minds to create moonshot innovations with a focus on climate change. Lun, who has a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, where his dissertation focused on "plasma thrusters" (vacuum arcs), won the prize for an audacious plan to use the metals in asteroids in order to bring them to Earth and mine them for valuable resources. Listen as Lun explains how it works, and also talks about his involvement in government's flagship EO-Sat1 Earth observation satellite programme.
24 May 2017 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | Charge’s R1.8-billion bet on an off-grid EV future

South Africa has fewer than 400 public electric vehicle charging stations – up from zero just 15 years ago – and EV adoption remains stubbornly slow. Yet Charge, formerly known as Zero Carbon Charge, is betting big that a coast-to-coast network of off-grid, renewable-powered charging stations is exactly what’s needed…
18 May 37 min

TCS+ | The Up&Up Group on the hidden cost of AI

Companies large and small are pouring capital into AI projects, chasing the promise of efficiency, speed and scale. But as Jason Harrison, chief operating officer of The Up&Up Group, argues in this episode of TechCentral’s TCS+, the upfront price tag tells only a fraction of the story – and many…
13 May 46 min

TCS+ | The retirement decision most South Africans get wrong

What happens to your retirement savings when you leave an employer is one of the most consequential financial decisions most South Africans will make – and one of the most commonly mishandled. In this podcast conversation with Mpho Chitapi, 10X Investments senior investment consultant Michael Rossouw sets out what should…
6 May 55 min

TCS | The Cape Town start-up listening for TB with AI

AI Diagnostics, a Cape Town-based med-tech company that has built an AI-powered stethoscope designed to detect tuberculosis, recently raised R85-million in a pre-series-A funding round. In this episode of the TechCentral Show (TCS), Nkosinathi Ndlovu speaks to the company’s CEO, Braden van Breda, about the funding round and its mission…
4 May 36 min
All episodes