PyroLeaders

Antalya | Exploring Venus Together

60 DAYS ON VENUS

High-Level Project Summary

Hi, we are PyroLeaders and we are going to pioneer the exploration of a challenging planet. We are designing a creative way to store energy on Venus for at least 60 days. Our project will provide viable energy capability for long-duration exploration missions. So we are simply focusing on a device that can store the necessary energy for these missions despite the harsh conditions of Venus. For our design we have used a flywheel which are mechanical batteries that store energy as rotational energy and upgrade it to resist high temperatures using heat resistant materials in various parts of the flywheel.

Link to Final Project

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ejUPxJk93Ryg214j0MCBbGnVGIftOuOL8gUPIvg_Ev4/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Project "Demo"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5czM9wvCibM

Detailed Project Description

What is our project?

Our project is to make a design to store energy on Venus for 60 days. For that purpose, we will use Flywheels, which are mechanical batteries that store energy as rotational energy. This is achieved by turning a rotor at high speeds. To turn the rotor this battery uses a motor/generator which also helps with discharging kinetic energy as electric energy. We have designed a flywheel resistant to the harsh conditions of Venus.

Parts we have changed

Motor/Generator: Motor/Generators are made with dense wiring and magnets because of that we have used AlNiCo grade 5 magnets and ceramic coated magnet wires. AlNiCo grade 5 magnets can generate enough magnetic field and resist up to 500 degrees Celsius which is enough to resist the 450 degrees Celsius temperature of Venus. Generally, used magnet wires are coated with enamels that melt at 200 degrees Celsius. However, we will use ceramic coated magnet wires which can resist to high temperatures of Venus.

Rim and Hub: For the hub, we must use a strong heat-resistant material, which could be titanium. For the rim we must use a material that has a high specific energy, which is how much energy per kg can be stored, low expansion rate which is useful for having less space in the flywheel, and heat resistant material. This material could be a type of carbon fiber composite.

Housing Of Flywheel: This part needs to be resistant to sulfuric acid because of the acidic weather of Venus so we have planned to cover the housing of the flywheel with a thin layer of platinum which is resistant to acids.

Bearings Of Flywheel: Because of the high heat, most sensors that control the magnetic bearings would break so we are planning to use mechanical bearings which will make us lose some of our energy at the cost of heat resistance.

Properties of this design

This design could be recharged by using wind energy on Venus. It can resist launching, reentry, descent, and landing with the help of housing. This design can operate up to 500 degrees Celsius. Upon reaching that temperature AlNiCo magnets will start losing their ability. These upgrades affect the mass by a little but volume is affected because the parts will expand when parts reach high temperatures so it needs space to expand for them to not break down.

Space Agency Data

We have used NASA's data to learn about which parts of the flywheel needs to be resistant to heat, pressure and the weather of Venus. Then, we have searched previous designs of flywheel to better understand our project and we have looked into data of the materials that can resist to harsh conditions of Venus. These findings inspired us to come up with a project like this.

Hackathon Journey

Hi, I am a team member of PyroLeaders and I am going to tell you about our Hackathon journey. Before I start, I would like to point at the fact that this is the second time we have been participating in this event and we thought that we were more experienced. But this year we had more problems with the challenge. Plus, because we were one of the more successful teams in our school last year we had more expectations and more rivalry this year. Because of this and because we had a hard time submitting our project last year, we decided to do things earlier this year so we had less problems submitting our project. At the same time, we had our first face-to-face event of Space Apps here in Antalya. After all these things, I would like to say that I will never forget the rivalry we had with other teams, how we shared our duties equally, how the things we learnt will benefit us in the future and how they are even benefitting us right now. Long story short, this was a once in a lifetime experience and if I had the chance, I would participate in this event a thousand times.