Schrödinger's cat's rats

Universal Event | Exploring Venus Together

WLPT: Wireless Laser Power Transmission

High-Level Project Summary

As a preferable solution to the required energy for in situ planetary explorations, we've developed a viable laser power transfer dual-vehicle system, one is a high-altitude aerial vehicle transmitting laser power from the more forgiving upper atmosphere of Venus, and the other is a lander that stores and uses the generated power to empower instruments, move, gather and process collected data and send the results back to Earth. These two spacecraft and their functions are tied together through a laser power transmission system. Our project would help provide adequate power for a long-life Venus surface mission and support a robust investigation of this mysterious planet.

Link to Final Project

https://sites.google.com/view/schrodingerscatsrats/home

Link to Project "Demo"

https://youtu.be/azkSgDeWbwk

Detailed Project Description

Venus Background and Prior Missions

Venus is a priority target of interest for exploration by the space science community. But the lack of a long-life power source capable of operating and surviving on Venus with its extensive cloud cover, complex atmospheric chemistry, extremely high surface temperatures (~460 C), and pressures of about 93 bars fundamentally limits the in situ exploration of this fascinating planet. Even though Venus is the planet most similar to the Earth in size and density, the extremely thick atmosphere at the surface makes it an extremely harsh surface environment.

The atmosphere of Venus is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and its clouds contain sulfuric acid droplets. As the Atmospheric profile of Venus doesn’t seem to be friendly enough, obtaining science from the surface is a difficult task. Because of these, the prior landers of Venus only survived hours! The Venera 13 lander, which survived for 127 minutes is the longest-lived lander ever to survive on Venus.

WLPT: Wireless Laser Power Transmission

Wireless Laser Power Transmission means transmitting energy through a laser beam in various media. In this project, a transmitter located on an aerial vehicle's power generation side would transfer the harvested power to a receiver located on lander energy storage through the CO2(carbon dioxide) atmosphere of a Venus mission. This would require transmitting power at radio frequency (RF) due to the presence of extensive cloud cover that would block other frequencies. The aerial vehicle would descend to the lower altitudes of the atmosphere to transmit its stored energy from its onboard high-temperature batteries to high-temperature batteries on the lander. On both the vehicles, either high-temperature molten salt or solid electrolyte batteries, or even a solid oxide regenerative fuel cell system, would serve as the energy storage medium. A rectifying antenna or “rectenna” constructed from suitable high-temperature materials would convert the beamed energy to direct current electrical power on the lander. Having the energy transferred to the lander, the aerial vehicle would ascend to the High Solar-flux upper reaches to recharge its batteries. Once these batteries were fully charged, the entire sequence would repeat. The lander would continue to perform as long as its components and systems survived, without being power-limited. The aerial vehicle could continue the secondary science investigations after the end of the landed element of the mission. The aerial vehicle can also serve as a communication relay between the Earth and the Venus lander. It would also support the transmission of data. This approach will also make uses of HOTTech photovoltaics which are feasible down to adequate solar flux (20 km) and high-temperature rechargeable batteries (which can be used in the upper reaches and on the surface) in a new way by separating the power generation and energy storage functions.

This approach has the potential solution to the Venus surface energy storage limitations and is feasible for powering a 60-day lander, which is a significant leap from the longest-lived previous landers.

Space Agency Data

Hackathon Journey

Space apps challenge gave us a great opportunity to express our latent talents. We started our journey full of doubts as first-timers at the Hackathon, but above all, we wanted to see how far our capabilities can take us. We believe in continuous improvement and innovation. We started our project by thinking about a flying system that can collect power from sun. A solution is nothing to us unless it expresses an opportunity for the future. While working on this project, some of our assignments have been late, we lost sleep at night, and missed our classes. After all, we're dreamers. So, we used this opportunity to convert the dream into a team. It was really an experience we shall never forget. We really want to thank previous year winner team Mohakash, from them we have gathered inspiration for further improvement of our project.

References

  1. T. Kremic, G. Hunter, J. Rock, P. Neudeck, D. Spry, G. Ponchak, J. Jordan, G. Beheim, R. Okajie, M. Scardelletti, J. Wrbanek, and J. Balcerski, 2018. Long-Lived In-Situ Solar System Explorer (LLISSE) probe development. Proc. of LPSC 49, Houston, TX, Abstract #2796.
  2. R.A. Lower, G.A. Landis and P. Jenkins, 1995. Response of Photovoltaic Cells to Pulsed Laser Illumination, IEEE Trans. Electron. Dev., 42, 744-751. 
  3. Q.V. Nguyen and G.W.Hunter, 2017. NASA High Operating Temperature Technology Program Overview, Proc. of 15th VEXAG Annual Meeting, Laurel, MD, Abstract #8046. 
  4. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269208034_Non-Cooled_Power_System_for_Venus_Lander
  5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24337707_Power_System_for_Venus_Surface_Exploration
  6. https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2019_Phase_I_Phase_II/
  7. https://dsiac.org/articles/laser-power-beaming/
  8. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2542435121005407
  9. https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/niac/2019_Phase_I_Phase_II/Power_Beaming/
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_transfer
  11. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345247447_Power_systems_for_Venus_surface_missions_A_review
  12. https://www.universetoday.com/135100/situ-technology-exploring-venus/

Tags

#Space Exploration, # Wireless Power Transmission, #Venus, #Extreme Atmosphere, #Planetary missions, #Energy Storage, #Power Beaming, # HOTTech, # Schrödinger's cat's rats

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.