High-Level Project Summary
'The sailing rover in Venus', is a wind sailed rover which is propelled by a turbine and a wing sailed rover which is propelled by a wingsailed. The rover consists of only two moving parts : four wheels and a vertical wing with solar cells on it's surface . Sunlight is the rover's primary energy source. As the rover carries sodium sulfur batteries on it's central deck where the batteries are recharged by the solar arrays and can function under extreme surface condition of Venus. The rover is designed to operate on the surface of Venus for atleast 60 earth days and would be landsailing for 10 minutes a day keeping power usage in consideration.
Detailed Project Description
The sailing rover in Venus', is a wind sailed rover which is propelled by a turbine and a wing sailed rover which is propelled by a wingsailed. The rover consists of only two moving parts : four wheels and a vertical wing with solar cells on it's surface . Sunlight is the rover's primary energy source. As the rover carries sodium sulfur batteries on it's central deck where the batteries are recharged by the solar arrays and can function under extreme surface condition of Venus. The rover is designed to operate on the surface of Venus for atleast 60 earth days and would be landsailing for 10 minutes a day keeping power usage in consideration.
The eye of the rover would be a camera popping out from it's front deck. It would be able to send quality pictures of venusian surface, shielded by a layer of tempered glass. The rover mask would be approximately 200kg with length and breadth of 4 and 5 meters respectively. The height would not exceed more than 1 meter. The central deck would also consist of science equipments like anemometer, thermometer and barometer to be aware of precise atmospheric data. In addition, the surface rover may also consist of other science packages that operate during descent and data would be transmitted with a radio contained in it.
Power is primarily generated by using solar panel because sunlight is the primary energy source for the rover. The wingsail and upper deck would be covered with solar panel. Although the thick cloud layer limits sunlight, there is enough light to use solar panels for low power demand systems. The power required is almost 90 watts to the rover for science operations. Out of which most of the power would be utilized for traverse and communication session and other important science operation. The new type of energy generator also known as piezo energy would be introduced in the rover. It's main mechanism is to convert pressure into energy which is why it's mechanism will be fitted in wheels so that pressure is built and energy is generated.
The main power storage system for this mission uses sodium sulfur batteries that are recharged by solar arrays and also backuped little by piezo energy system. Also sodium sulfur has the energy density of 110 Wh/per kg which is enough for low powered energy system.
Space Agency Data
- Energy Storage Technologies for Future Planetary Science Missions | NASA Solar System Exploration
- High Energy, Long Cycle Life, and Extreme Temperature Lithium-Sulfur Battery for Venus Missions
- NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program - Energy Storage for Extreme Environments
- Venus Resources
- Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE) | NASA
- Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover | NASA
- Previous Venus Technology Space Apps Challenge
- Batteries for Venus Surface Operation
Hackathon Journey
The experience was very interesting our team got a chance to explore deep about Venus. We got a chance to examine our problem solving skill and teamwork. Curiosity to learn and solve problem of we like minded teammate is the main inspiration to be part of this hackathon. During our research we got to know many things that we were unaware of. We did the detailed study of atmospheric condition of Venus. Beside that the two days hackathon was a golden platform for the science and space enthusiast. We also made lots of new friends and got to know wonderful mentors who were like a guardain to all of the parctcipants of NASA space app challenge.
References
Tags
#hackathon2022#exploringvenus#teamjuvenile#NASA space app challenge#NASO