High-Level Project Summary
We developed a fully functioning system for advanced exploration in Venus. The system consists of a lander, rover , orbiter and drone. This system solves one of the biggest problems related to the exploration of Venus, Lack of energy. The fact that most planned Venus landers or rovers either had short energy capacity or were just too gigantic and heavy to be economically feasible limits our capabilities of uncovering the mysteries of Venus. We have used an resource from Venus (CO2), used the fact that it dissolves in H2O enabling it to be electrolyzed producing the 2 main materials for a Hydrogen fuel cell, enabling it to be much more long term as FCEVs last longer than BEV's
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
The Hydrogen Fuel cell enables the mission to be more long term rather than short term, allowing for a lot more research that can be conducted on Venus. The lander is carefully designed with materials like copper to make sure that it is strong enough to survive the harsh climate of Venus. The rover and drone enables more movement allowing for a wider range of research. The energy source works on the basis of an automated system. The inside of the storge tank contains water from planet Earth, It has two sensors next to it. A pH sensor which will help determine concentration of the carbonic acid to ensure it does not reduce drastically and a temperature sensor detecting the temperature of the solution. This helps enable the cooling system to make sure the water is in liquid form. All of the information from the sensors go through the ADC so it can be read by the microprocessor enabling it to read the data. Once the microprocessor reads the data it compares it to something called the preset value, after which it sends commands to the actuator via the DAC. This system is relatively small in size so it does not have a huge impact on the volume and mass of the lander and rover. The benefits of using this method and a hydrogen fuel cell is that it lasts much longer than normal batteries like Na2S and Li2S.The mass and volume taken by the system is not very high as expected since hydrogen fuel cells tend to produce a lot energy in small amounts. We hope that are system may come into use one day as it not only solves the problem in the challenge but it also may solve 2 of the worlds main problems: energy shortage and climate change. A lot software was used on this project like powerpoint , Blender, Tinkercad etc. This project also aims to be one of the first successful lander+rover missions to Venus.
Space Agency Data
Space agency data provided us with trustworthy and relevant statistics, which helped us to give an overview about previous rovers that landed on Venus for very little time as well as helped us to shape our project, Data about previous energy sources and Venus's atmosphere. The open source data provided online as well as on NASA sites were immensely helpful in the furnishings and details of our project. We used data from NASA and multiple other studies and research works to analyze which energy source and storage system would be best and most long-lasting. Numerous data and studies actually majorly influenced what type of energy source we would be utilizing for the rover. The space agency data also immensely helped in our designs and allowed us to accurately estimate the differences in values like mass and volume
Hackathon Journey
True to its name, NASA Space Apps Challenge has undoubtedly been a challenge filled with moon-sized craters and Jupiter-worthy hurdles but it has been a huge learning step for our team as well as it helped us strengthen our problem-solving skills and allowed us to use our creativity and teamwork to come up with a project that affects the future of space exploration. Inspired by the creativity and challenging nature of the prompt, we took our time to carefully plan out and iron out the details of our project. Delightfully surprised and further encouraged by how interlinked the project research is to our IGCSE syllabus (we are currently learning about electrolysis and space physics), we eagerly took up this mantle to apply our knowledge, learn more and expand our horizons. From the intricate data, to the thorough presentation, our team, Quiet Phonons has poured our heart, soul and skills into ‘The First Explorer’. Enlightened by our experience during the Space Apps Challenge, that has made us look into aspects of astrophysics, computing, engineering and space exploration that we would not ordinarily look into, we emerge as potential future physicists, chemists, analysts and engineers. NASA Space Apps Challenge has given us the unique opportunity to think like leaders of the future and we'd like to thank everyone who helped make this possible.
References
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2012_Phase_I_venus_landsailing_rover/#:~:text=It%20is%20significant%20that%2C%20although,survived%20for%20only%20two%20hours
https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/physical-processes/intro-electrochemistry-mcat/a/electrochemistry
https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/how-does-lithium-ion-battery-work
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/by-the-numbers/
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2mn5z7hj
https://www.eqmagpro.com/lithium-ion-batteries-vs-hydrogen-fuel-cell-which-is-the-technology-of-the-future/
https://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/mc/mcfcmain.htm
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/MA2021-02154mtgabs/meta
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Venera
https://community.sw.siemens.com/s/article/Coupling-a-battery-and-a-fuel-cell-to-power-an-electric-motor
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ra/d1ra02629a
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26058329
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/MA2021-02154mtgabs/meta
Stock Images on Power point.
Tags
#Venus-Explorer, #Rover