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 | How Optasia lends billions to people banks can’t see

Optasia will distribute more than US$6-billion in credit across its markets in 2026 – and it carries every cent of the default risk itself. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, CEO Salvador Anglada unpacks how the JSE’s biggest recent fintech listing actually works. Formerly known as Channel VAS, Optasia…
23 Jul 25 min

Everything you wanted to know about EVs but were afraid to ask

In the latest episode of Watts & Wheels with Wills, host William Kelly is joined in the studio by Greg Cress, automotive and e-mobility industry lead at Accenture South Africa, and Gary Scott of Scottify -- two of the longest-serving voices in South Africa's electric vehicle scene, and co-authors of…
22 Jul 19 min

Watts & Wheels with Wills: The rands-and-cents case for electric trucks

Aeversa’s John Ford unpacks the rands-and-cents case for electric trucks in this first of a new interview series. TechCentral is proud to present the first episode of Watts & Wheels with Wills, our new interview show about electric vehicles and the fast-changing world of e-mobility in South Africa. In the…
20 Jul 22 min

Watts & Wheels S1E7: 'Ferrari's EV breaks the internet'

Episode 7 of Watts & Wheels – TechCentral's electric motoring show – opens with mock outrage: the South African Car of the Year results are in, and the Alfa Romeo Junior didn't take the overall title. Hosts William Kelly and Duncan McLeod demand a recount – though they concede the…
8 Jul 1 hr 05 min

TCS | Pick n Pay’s Enrico Ferigolli on Penny, the AI that shops for you

Pick n Pay has switched on an AI shopping companion called Penny inside its asap! app, and in this episode of the TechCentral Show, retail executive for omnichannel Enrico Ferigolli takes editor Duncan McLeod through what it does and why it matters. Built on Google's Gemini models, Penny lets customers…
2 Jul 23 min