Kinetic Vision

Khulna | Exploring Venus Together

PROJECT ALPHA

High-Level Project Summary

We have developed a chemo-mechanical based energy conservation system for supplying energy in extreme environment of Venus . Primarily , it supplies steam energy from a chemical reaction (LiOH(s) +CO2(g)=Li2CO3(s) + H2O(g)) which flows over a reciprocating motion converter and creates electrical energy by a generator. Then the electrical energy is conserved in a high RPM magnetically levitated flywheel by a bidirectional generator which is in completely vacuum chamber to preserve the kinetic motion for longer use. The purpose of the chemical reaction is to supply additional energy in the flywheel for emergency energy need.

Link to Final Project

https://grabcad.com/library/project-alpha-5

Link to Project "Demo"

https://youtu.be/tFS9SwgS6D0

Detailed Project Description


WHAT DID WE DEVELOP?


According to NASA, Venus surface is very harsh. Its atmosphere contains toxic chemical like HF, HCl,SO2,CO2 . Beside its surface temperature is 460 degree celsius and pressure is 92 bar. In this condition, any rover that operates on conventional battery cannot last longer .

 

                                                                 

Our Solution:                                                    


We have developed Project Alpha as an energy conservation system for supplying energy in extreme environment of Venus . In this project we use flywheel to conserve energy as kinetic form .


FLYWHEEL:


A Flywheel is a mechanical device which uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy which is proportional to the product of its momentum of inertia and square of its rotational speed. The flywheel as a means of energy storage has existed for thousands of years as one of the earliest mechanical energy storage systems. It is a mechanical storage device which emulates the storage of electrical energy by converting it to mechanical energy. The input energy to the FESS (Flywheel Energy storage Sustem) is usually drawn from an electrical source coming from the grid or any other source of electrical energy. The flywheel speeds up as it stores energy and slows down when it is discharging, to deliver the accumulated energy. The rotating flywheel is driven by an electrical motor-generator (MG) performing the interchange of electrical energy to mechanical energy, and vice versa . The flywheel and MG are coaxially connected, indicating that controlling the MG enables control of the flywheel .

 

 


Different parts of our project:


How does it work:


LiOH(s) is contained in the container supplied from the Earth. When the existing kinetic energy stored in flywheel does not meet the demand or loses gradually with time due to air resistance and drag force, LiOH will be entered into the chemical chamber and through the inlet valve , CO2 from venus atmosphere will enter into the chamber .From the reaction(LiOH+CO2=H2O+Li2CO3 ) water will be produced. As the venus surface temperature is 460 degree celsius(apx), 

 

the reaction chamber will get hot at 460 degree celsius.So the product of reaction H2O(l) will change its phase to H2O(steam) expanding rapidly. Eventually this will create high pressure superheated steam. This high pressure steam will move piston to forward direction when the piston will pass steam outlet valve then this outlet valve will open to exhaust steam pressure. Piston is connected to the connecting rod which is also connected to the crankshaft converting reciprocating motion into rotary motion. A DC Generator is attached with the crankshaft which will convert this energy into electrical energy when needed. Then this electrical energy will used to rotate flywheel to meet up the energy demand.




Uniqueness of Our System:



Tools Used:

  1.    Solidworks
  2.    Keyshot
  3.    Kinemaster
  4.   Camtasia

Space Agency Data

  1. "Idea about Flywheel"https://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/f_flywheel.html
  2.  https://www.esa.int/esearch?q=flywheel
  3.  " Batteries for Venus Surface" https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/1.41886
  4.  "Resources and Diagram" https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/
  5. "Resources about advanced energy storage Technology" Energy Storage Technologies for Future Planetary Science Missions | NASA Solar System Exploration
  6. "Probable solutions for venus Energy supply system" NASA SBIR 2021-I Solicitation | S3.03-3308 - High Temperature All Solid-State LiAl-CO2 Batteries for Venus Missions | Proposal Summary
  7. "Inspired us"The Memory-Maker - Space Apps Challenge | 2019


Hackathon Journey

Previously , we just heard about Nasa Space Apps Challenge from social media. So we were not very confident about participating this year. But as our semester had ended , we had enough time to look into the hackathon and became interested about  Exploring Venus Together for our challenge. As it is an real engineering problem and upon solving it, it may be directly implemented on the next probe of Nasa. Which is a life long dream fulfillment for any enthusiast who wants to leave his mark on the space history.

 

We like to specially thanks Rahat Hasnat, Team Lead of Nokkhotro for initially informing and encouraging us to participate on the challenge.

References

  1. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/3/286
  2.  https://www.britannica.com/technology/flywheel
  3. https://youtu.be/GrE52eGCMYA

Tags

#Energy#Storage# Hardware#Space-Exploration#3D Design

Exploring Venus Together

Your challenge is to design an energy storage system that will power a surface lander or rover on the surface of Venus for at least 60 days, so that there is a viable energy storage capability for long-duration exploration missions.