Trilobyte

Power Wings

High-Level Project Summary

PowerWings is a wind turbine that connects to a rover to generate electricity, allowing for a much longer journey on the surface of Venus. It was inspired by Marco Sombra's “WindCube” turbine model, which is highly advantageous as it can: operate for 24 hours a day; generate 195W; and use low intensity wind (~3m/s minimum) coming from any direction to produce energy. This means that even in a high-density environment like Venus, the average electricity generated will be enough to supply the rover for a long period.Because PowerWing is made up of corrosion resistant materials that can be heated to high temperatures without melting, the project is estimated to last at least 5 months.

Link to Final Project

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17sVYhhVVPKBJftq1TkhW5McmnqGDpca7?usp=sharing

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17sVYhhVVPKBJftq1TkhW5McmnqGDpca7?usp=sharing

Detailed Project Description

The power generation system uses a set of sails, which concentrate winds with speed as low as 3 m/s that put in motion a vertical. The rotor has radially arranged vertical blades that achieve high speed and that are protected in a plastic cube. The sails are arranged in an X shpe, allowing the system to take advantage of winds that come from any direction.

If necessary, when the vehicle moves, the sail system can be folded and the mast/rotor can be lowered to reduce the drag. Once the vehicle stops, it can be elevated to produce energy again.

The power generated by the turbine can be estimated as such:

Power = 0.5 x Swept Area x Air Density x Estimated Wind Velocity

Power = 0.5 * (1m * 2m) * (65 kg m^−3)* 3m/s

Power = 195W

Composition and dimensions:

Space Agency Data

Anthony J Colozza’s (NASA Glenn Research Center) and Geoffrey A. Landis’ (NASA ·-Photovoltaics and Power Technologies) “Solar Powered Flight on Venus” was essential to complete our project. The study is rich in information about the atmosphere and composition of Venus and was able to assist Trilobyte as we explored the environment our challenge was set in. Landi’s works “Robotic exploration of the surface and atmosphere of Venus”, ”Venus Surface Power and Cooling System Design” gave us insight into the evolution and early ideas regarding Venus exploration technologies.

Hackathon Journey

Trilobyte found that this year’ s Space Apps Hackathon had incredibly interesting challenges that combined art, storytelling, math and science. The challenges involved a lot of creativity in their resolution and seemed less technical. This was great because it gave the opportunity for members of the group (who are majoritarily highschool students) to participate more and get involved more profoundly in the elaboration process.

We chose “EXPLORING VENUS TOGETHER” because, to us, it was truly a challenge: most of us experienced difficulties learning about energy at our schools. However, thanks to the Space Apps Hackathon, we are not only performing better at our academic studies regarding energy, but we also became very interested in this subject. Participating in this Hackathon turned out to be a demanding but ultimately fun and enriching experience.

The project was divided into 4 stages: researching the problem, researching solutions previously elaborated, brainstorming our own solution, and developing the design of our solution. We employed two people for each of the first two stages. After these were complete, the whole group worked on the last two tasks. We found that breaking up the group into smaller parts made things more productive.

Trilobyte’s biggest challenge was finding time to enter our submissions into the Space Apps platform. Even though we had our ideas ready and organized, we still had to transfer them to the Hackathon’s website. The problem is that October 1st and 2nd were election days in our country: apart from the political tension, most of us were voting for the first time and the waiting time on the queues to vote were exceptionally long this year. However, Trylobite’s team members managed to coordinate themselves and we were able to submit everything on time.

References

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