Strap in Re/Cappers, things get supersonic today with a lead Re/Cap on the digital twin passion of some true aerospace aces.
Now, it is absolutely barrier-breaking, what Lockheed Martin is getting up to with virtual replicas; but it’s far from their first jaunt with them, as an early, significant #twinwin was a rocky start…in the best way possible.
It’s 2016. There’s this asteroid named Bennu loitering in our neck of the woods. Smart folk suspect that it could contain little pearls of truth regarding *checks notes* the formation of our solar system, and tasked Lockheed Martin to build a special craft – the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer).
To prepare for the imagine-telling-the-Wright-Brothers-about-this-one mission, Lockheed Martin called on Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) to simulate the mission trajectory. This digital twin of the spacecraft – and its duty – enabled sweeping testing and analysis before showtime.
And what a show it was.
In October, 2020, the coolest violation of social distancing ever happens when after a two-year orbit survey, OSIRIS-REx conducted a “touch-and-go” maneuver to collect at least 60 grams of Bennu bits, a sample size that trounced any previous sample retrieval operation.
On May 10, 2021, OSIRIS-REx flipped a U for its 2.5-year return to us. And today, scientists are still analyzing the one cup of Bennu’s material, because, after seven years, 5,000 degrees, and four billion roundtrip miles, a digital twin helped say they could.
As for our pal OSIRIS-Rex, coffee break’s over. It’s on an extended mission to asteroid Apophis, which it will reach in 2029.
So ‘Heed this warning, all you celestial chunks out there. If you’ve got answers, ‘Heed’s got quests – digital twin style.
What’s Cappenin’ This Week: Lockheed Martin clears digital twins for takeoff, Mosaic visualizes the industry’s 2025, a geospatial CEO addresses land surveyors and tech expansion, an architect gets solar savvy with BIM, and an AEC Error of the Week that was the unfortunate, harrowing wake up call the garment industry needed.
Quick ‘Caps: An all-female construction crew rebuilds Ukrainian homes, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Laurence Fishburne talk the tech & science of The Matrix, the BIM market gets an 8-year forecast, Insta360 teams with a renowned photographer & filmmaker, LiDAR, laser scanning, photogrammetry and GNSS get compared for AEC use, and drone news on bills, DJI geofencing, and hitting planes
Last week: Jimmy Carter’s youth is preserved through reality capture, CES brings industrial its AI/robot/digital twin moment, spacecraft lose weight thanks to photogrammetry, a geospatial roundtable maps the past and future, and an AEC Error of the Week packed with modern wisdom…from Ancient Rome
Lockheed Martin may operate in the defense sector. But when it comes to cutting-edge tech implementation, sheesh have they gone on offense.
And digital twins might be their MVP. From environmental monitoring to human-machine tag teams, some ongoing twinning has product development – and savings – at warp speed.
Relying heavily on ARISE™ software to bolster their 21st Century Security initiative, ‘Heed has forged two twins with implications as big as their data sets: The Earth and Space Observing Digital Twin, to support the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the ePilot, a digital twin of…human aircraft commanders.
Smarten up Martin style by digesting their own news brief about the advancements below.
Calling Texas hot is like calling the Battle of the Alamo a royal rumble. But some of the Lone Star State’s regions are more anomalous than others. Take Austin, which claims a relatively subtropical, humid climate. And even more uniquely, Austin features a novel sun path that’s an annual source for architects’ agony.
But have no fear. One architect is en route to claiming BIM there, done that, when referring to Austin’s climate and subsequent energy demands.
Solar studies in Vectorworks. Otherwise known as A/B/Vitamin D testing. Image credit Boussoleil | François Lévy Architecture + Interiors
François Lévy is an eminent figure in the “keep it weird” city for his climate-responsive, energy-efficient architecture. And BIM’s at the heart of it, further advancing the sustainable design principles he’s championed for years as a practicing architect, published author, and former teacher.
Architosh recently released a first-rate profile of Lévy, touching on his unified BIM delivery system, why Austin IS so weird when it comes to climate, Vectorworks, sun-shading data & site orientation, energy, and renovation workflows. Catch some rays below.
On the heels of their latest imagery-focused mobile mapping release, Mosaic is in familiar territory – perched high, an all-seeing eye, primed to thrive. Because they’ve so deftly helped others see small things, they see the bigger things, the macro movements.
And in an unnecessary act of generosity, they’ve shared their prophecies with all of us – along with their reactive gameplan.
Framed around the growing fusion of technologies, and the entry into budding domains like VFX, XR, and gaming, Mosaic’s 2025 oracle-work features seven sections in a six-minute read for your professional arsenal.
Get a 360° view on 2025’s mobile mapping revolution, market trends & changing demands, physical AI, tech convergence, metaverse-specific hardware, and a wealth of miscellaneous predictions.
Bismarck, ND-based Frontier Precision might have 27 years under its belt assisting surveyors, engineers, GIS techs, contractors, unmanned operators, law enforcement, forestry and beyond.
But just last year, it added another arrow to its quiver of clients – agriculture. Because while President & CEO Dennis Kemmesat insists geospatial remains Frontier’s “core business,” he’s just as adamant that he’s in for the ride as technology permeates new domains.
Kemmeset visited with The American Surveyor as his company, and its diversity of projects, expand. Surv yourself some revealing conversation on GNSS, joint ventures, agricultural applications & land surveyors’ roles, AI morphing land surveying, spray drones, and the integration of GIS and land surveying.
Technology is more than metal and math—it’s a promise. A promise that human ingenuity can anticipate tragedy. That our tools can preclude pain – the exact kind that defined April 24, 2013.
On that date, the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Savar, Bangladesh, collapsed, resulting in one of the deadliest structural failures in modern history.
The day before the collapse, large structural cracks were discovered in the building. While shops and a bank on the lower floors closed immediately, garment factory owners on the upper floors ignored the warnings. Workers were ordered to return the next day, with some managers even threatening to withhold pay from those who refused. This blatant disregard for safety led to workers being present when the building collapsed just hours later.
The Rana Plaza disaster exposed a systemic lack of regulation and negligent workplace monitoring in Bangladesh’s garment industry. The building had been constructed on unstable ground, with substandard materials, and had several floors added illegally.
In the aftermath, the incident sparked significant changes in the industry, notably the creation of The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. However, 11 years later, while factories are safer, many of the root causes that led to the tragedy persist.
In the case of Rana Plaza, the retroactive prospect of advanced technologies represent not just scientific achievement, but a moral imperative to protect human life.
Drones could have been godsends, capturing the building’s exterior, their cameras and sensors documenting every crack, every strain, every warning sign – all without risking human lives in the process.
An immaculate BIM-driven digital twin of the Plaza would have done more than just mirror the physical structure – it would have sounded the proverbial alarm as each illegal floor added its crushing weight to the floors below, simulating the growing strain on the building’s bones.
The precision of modern metrology tools could have told a story written in millimeters – the story of a building slowly deviating from its approved plans. High-precision lasers would have traced every contour, every angle, marking the subtle shifts that presaged disaster.
Where humans couldn’t or shouldn’t have reached, robotic scouts could have ventured, armed with sensors and cameras. Between the eyes in the sky and the scouts on the ground, no warning sign would have gone unseen, no structural weakness unnoticed.
Rana Plaza stands as more than a tragedy – it’s a lesson written in concrete and steel. Even as we marvel at the tools that might have prevented it, we must remember that technology is only as ethical as the hands that wield it.
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