Aerospace engineer Dr Anita Sengupta led the team that developed the supersonic parachute which helped land Nasa’s Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012. It’s still on the Red Planet today, and its main goal is to assess whether there is, or ever was, life on Mars. She tells 17-year-old astrophysics enthusiast Avantika, from India, how her love of space began when she watched a science-fiction show on TV.

Nasa’s Curiosity rover parachute

Teenagers from the around the world talk to the technology pioneers who have shaped their lives. Each episode is introduced by seventeen year old Anna Zanelli, a budding designer from London. Young people get the chance to ask leading innovators the questions they want answered. We find out about the inspiration behind some of the most important digital inventions, what their creators needed to do to make them a reality, and hear words of wisdom from brilliant minds.

Technology

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Gadgets

Software How-To

Eighteen year old Michael, from Dubai, who wants to become an engineer, talks to Keller Rinaudo, whose company Zipline has built what they say is the world’s fastest delivery drone. Travelling at more than 100 km per hour, these battery-powered aircraft look like small planes. Doctors in remote areas of Rwanda and Ghana send requests for medical supplies via text and Whatsapp, which the drone then delivers. We hear how they work and how the doctors first reacted to them.

Drones

Eighteen-old-entrepreneur Leander, from Greece, discovers how sci-fi became reality, through the work of leading orthopaedic surgeon Professor Munjed Al Muderis. He has developed a new generation of implants for amputees which replaces the traditional socket based technology with a robotic prosthetic limb. We also hear about Professor Al Muderis’s life, and the journey he made as a refugee from Iraq to Australia. Made by BBC World Service and BBC Rewind. Produced by Tamsin Barber.

Prosthetics

In the late 1990s, engineer Dr Caroline Hargrove was working with the McLaren motor racing team when she developed the first Formula 1 simulator – a machine that helps racing teams design faster cars and improve performance. Sixteen-year-old motor racing fan, Marielle from Hong Kong, quizzes Caroline on her work in motor sport, how the simulator works and how drivers came to love it – eventually!
 
Made by BBC World Service and BBC Rewind
Produced by Tamsin Barber

Formula 1 simulator

In 1973, Marty Cooper made the first public mobile phone call using his newly invented cell phone. Now, there are more mobile phones on the planet than people. Fourteen-year-old Becky, from Northern Ireland, asks Marty about that call and how his invention changed our lives. Producer: Tamsin Barber.
 
World Wise Web is a co-production between BBC World Service and BBC Rewind.
Music composed by Nick Thorburn

Nasa’s Curiosity rover parachute

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