lithium caput

La Plata | Exploring Venus Together

Multi-purpose power generator module for terrestrial missions to Venus

High-Level Project Summary

We face the challenge of powering a rover or lander for a 60-day period on the planet Venus. The detail on the planet is essential, since it presents a hostile environment, with clouds of sulfuric acid that leads to corrosion of materials, an atmosphere with high temperatures and pressures, where the electronics are destroyed shortly after entering the atmosphere of Venus.To address this problem, we developed a power generator that can withstand the conditions, with the possibility of supplying various machinery and use it in future explorations.

Link to Final Project

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ID9AyD9eKlGH5xd6jqCPOLlUc4d11-n1HIV4GIm_KQo/edit

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.canva.com/design/DAFN8dyRiiY/QupiFVHBvnVDZzQBJabhUw/view?utm_content=DAFN8dyRiiY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Detailed Project Description

  • What exactly does it do?


When a rover is launched for a mission to explore the territory of Venus, it requires energy to operate.


The module generates energy by means of a chemical reaction between Li Al brought from planet Earth and Co2 taken from the atmosphere of Venus. This energy can power a rover or its lander for 60 days and can be used for future explorations.








  • How does it work?


The internal chips* of the module are activated (thanks to an already charged Lithium Sulfur battery), allowing it to open the gate that lets CO2 from the environment into the module. The CO2 joins with the Lithium and Aluminum generating an oxidation reaction.


From this reaction of components, which function as our fuel, we will obtain the energy of 948 Watts Hour/Kilogram.


For each Kilo of our fuel-compound that is burned, we produce enough energy to use a Rover at its maximum capacity. The rest of the energy that we do not use is used to recharge the initial battery that comes with the module and the rest will be dissipated to the environment.


*These chips are designed to withstand the high temperature conditions of Venus and allow the module's gate to be activated intelligently, allowing the generation of energy only when we want to use it. This optimizes the use of the material.





  • What are the benefits? What do you hope to achieve?


With this development we seek to be efficient, using a component specific to the atmospheric environment of Venus, which allows us to lighten the load with which the Rover has to reach the planet.


The system proposes a longer useful life that reduces the costs of future explorations and allows the generator to be reused; it only requires a lithium recharge to be able to produce energy again.


It combines chemistry and mechanics to operate in an environment where electronics are not the best option.


Another benefit is efficiency in the use of materials.








  • What tools, coding languages, hardware or software did you use to develop your project?


In order to develop the project we required a module, composed of x materials, it uses the "Stirling Duplex" principle of operation in addition to the Lithium Sulfur battery that is charged from the space station, the special chips and the Lithium with Aluminum that go inside the module.

Space Agency Data

With the data provided by NASA, we define the system that we will use.


Being a generator system developed by the company TalosTech LLC and the University of Delaware that they propose through the reaction of LiAl-CO2. This generator is perfectly adapted to the adverse conditions present on Venus.


The operation of a LiAl-CO2 generator consists of the reaction of LiAL with CO2, present at 97% in the atmosphere, providing temperatures above 1000 °C and generating the evaporation of water included in the system. Consequently, it moves a turbine, exchanging mechanical energy for electrical energy.


The generator has an energy delivery rate of 948wh/kg, it should be noted that the chosen Rover only has a consumption between communication systems, motorization and others of 100Wh/kg, resulting in the additional energy being stored in a battery of Lithium Sulfur.


Lithium Sulfur batteries are developed by the University of Dayton, which states that the lithium sulfur battery has a higher energy density (theoretical = 2735 Wh kg-1), it is safer due to the greater ionization energy of lithium vs. sodium and its discharge product, Li2S, is not corrosive. This proposed research will explore the combined capabilities of high-energy-density lithium-sulfur batteries incorporating solid-state, high-temperature stable, superionic (Li+ only) electrolytes. For correct operation and interconnection between the systems, a controller chip is needed.


The inspirational and innovative section that we decided to develop is the possibility of recharging this generator module, through the entry of lithium through one of its sides, thus solving not only the problem of the extensive duration of time but also the economic and logistical areas of the project.


With this, another series of difficulties was presented, such as what materials are suitable for a prolonged time in these conditions and the weight and volume that this module occupies.


As main insulating materials will be the combination of Airgel with a thin layer of MLI and titanium alloys in the vicinity of the generator, the weight and volume data were calculated in detail in the attached file.

Hackathon Journey

The experience in Space Apps Challenge was very enriching, it allowed us to learn technical tools and theory from our teammates, as well as from the organizers.


The challenges were submitted to a vote and unanimously won the challenge "Exploring Venus Together", the reason for the vote was diverse, but mainly because of the technical skills that we could group as a team and the enthusiasm to face a challenge that seemed to us of considerable difficulty for the academic level of the group.


The project talks about generating and storing energy for 60 days for exploration missions. We sought to generate energy with the use of a consumable, storing only a small part for the basics but opting for greater efficiency of energy expenditure to take care of our compounds brought from the ground.


The team went through many setbacks, we always looked for support from people who had more knowledge than us, either the organizing team or members of other groups with more knowledge.


We would like to thank the organizing team. Mainly to Sol, Stefania, Gonzalo and Fernanda for their help and great patience during the development of the project.

References

Tags

#Energy #Venus #Generator #Explorer

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.