Team Artemis

Sibu | Exploring Venus Together

Awards & Nominations

Team Artemis has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!

Global Nominee

Exploring Venus Together

High-Level Project Summary

Previous missions to the surface of Venus have been designed to operate for short durations. We develop an energy storage system for long period Venus Exploration, “Endurance” We use two lithium-aluminum iron disulfide battery which can withstand the burn of the sulphuric acid as the power source and titanium alloy used is strong. Two batteries isn’t enough to fulfill energy consumption of rover for few months' mission. A balloon and sulphuric acid collector is launch from charging system and rise into the atmosphere of the Venus to collect sulphuric acid. Once done, the altitude will lower and butt in with charging system. The sulphuric acid is electrolysed to produce energy.

The system is operated by the sulphuric acid collector. The collector is a vacuum tank which does not have any pressure in it. This design will be able to let the high pressure H2SO4 and air to force into the tank. When the tank is filled. The air will be ejected out of the collector. Then the balloon carried with 10kg of sulphuric acid will land and attach to the rover. Both of them will be attached by a docking system similiar to the docking system of ISS. When the balloon is landing, the temperature and atmospheric pressure increases. To prevent the sulphuric acid heat until change to gaseous state, the temperature in the tank is controlled by Active Thermal Architecture. Next, the liquid sulphuric acid will flow to the liquid tank of the rover. The liquid tank is kept cool by insulation system made of porous silica material which is capable of handling a high temperature and high pressure gas environment. After that, the sulphuric acid is electrolysed by electrolysis system. The sulphuric acid will breakdown to hydrons and hydrogen sulfate anions. The ions move to the opposite electrode and produce current. The electric current is directed away from the positive terminal and toward the negative terminal of the LiAl-FeS2 battery. The battery is charged and can work again. Based on the calculation, the system can generates 2.73 kWh of energy for one charge. Furthermore, the rover has one back up battery to replace the malfunctioned battery. The charging system has back up parts to prevent the failure which affects the power supply of the rover. The rover is expected to operate for at least half a year. This can maximise the use of the rover. Our project is done using Blender. It is used to make a 3D model for the justification of our idea.

Space Agency Data

To develop an energy storage system that can work well on the surface of the Venus, tolerate the extremely high temperature and atmospheric pressure of Venus. Team Artemis refer to the open data from NASA, including Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The data gives us some clue to design the system, including the type of battery, and the materials for protective enclosure. We were inspired by the data given by NASA about the atmosphere composition of Venus, which let us decide the use sulphuric acid as the power source. We were also inspired by the data about the Vega ii Venus Balloon provided by NASA, which inspire us with the concept of Venus Balloon to carry sulphuric acid collector.

Hackathon Journey

Our Space App experience can be described by only one word - exciting. We are challengers, we are keen to explore the universe. In the process, we faced many difficulties, we had no experience in making 3D models. We manage to produce one after watching how the others produce one. The calculation that involves is also complex, we keep doing discussion and research. We would like to thank our teacher for giving us the opportunity to participate in this competition, we gained a lot of experience through the process.