VStars

Tel Aviv | Exploring Venus Together

VStars Energy

High-Level Project Summary

Our solution is a Wind Turbine that relies on the strong winds on venus. The technology of the turbine is based on the technology we have on earth - the ability to adjust its direction by the wind direction for maximum efficiency. We suggested materials that have been tested by NASA for the turbine body, mechanical parts, electronics, and the battery, which can handle venus's extreme conditions. The purpose of the turbine is to supply the energy with a wireless charger, and any spare energy will be saved in the turbine battery.

Link to Final Project

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hnUwAFhZ5tbx4TrSV07sygp5Linr5MxL?usp=sharing

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rZ5U3v1GFYhkvJm9B7DG65y--O-y0vwz?usp=sharing

Detailed Project Description

Up until today, engineers have tried to develop systems that could survive on Venus for enough time to be able to perform research missions. The maximum lifetime of these past systems lasted for roughly 2 hours.

To perform our research, we assumed that Venus missions will rely on the same systems as those used for the Mars missions allowing us to simulate a mission using the same methods. Additionally, we assume the power is 100W for 4 hours.

Throughout our research on Venus’s past missions, we’ve realized that the batteries do not operate as needed. The first step to finding a solution was to understand if there was a possibility to use already made batteries that can survive in the Venus environment. We found that NASA has the capabilities of using batteries that are meant specifically for future missions to Venus.

There are three kinds of materials that can be use for those kinds of batteries :

1. LiAl-FeS2

2. Sodium-Sulfur (Na-S)

3. Sodium-Nickel Chloride (Na-NiCl2)

We decided to use the existing batteries developed by NASA and develop a system that can create energy in the smartest way possible depending on the natural resources that exist on Venus. The main resource that will be used by our system is the strong wind currents that exist close to the surface of the planet.

We developed a wind turbine to harvest the energy from the strong surface winds as we found this to be the most effective. The turbine can open and close by leveraging its folding pole. The base of the turbine uses SpaceX’s folding legs technology, and the turbine blades can also be folded so that the turbine structure becomes modular.

The energy created by the turbine then charges the already made NASA batteries. Once the batteries are charged, the rover can drive onto a platform and get charged wirelessly without any mechanics involved thereby lowering any issues that may occur.

We calculated the diameter of the turbine using the following algorithm:

The materials needed to build our system, are based on NASA's research, and include the following:

1. Carbon Graphite

2. Silicon Carbide

We believe that using Carbon Graphite would be more efficient as this means the structure will be lighter weight (3-ton max).

First draft VS final project

The model is only a concept. due to a limited time frame, we didn't perform stress tests, and optimization of aerodynamics, structure planning, mechanics, and electronics.

Space Agency Data

The most important thing, before we started working on our system, was to search for Venus's information. We had to find out what is known to us.

For the basic data about Venus, we used the followings :

Solar Powered Flight on Venus

Venus Resources

for the technology we developed, we used the followings :

DAVINCI In Situ Capability Roundtable

Energy Storage Technologies for Future Planetary Science Missions

Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments (AREE)

One of the most important things was to learn from others with challenges similar to ours, so we used :

Exploring Hell: Avoiding Obstacles on a Clockwork Rover

Hackathon Journey

Our team was shaped thanks to the Afeka College Space club. The three of us are engineering students, therefore we're very motivated to learn and reach new fields of study, specifically in the energy field.

The hackathon was the perfect journey for us.

We learned a lot about energy production and energy storage solutions, considering extreme and very different conditions. Very different from what we know on earth, by performing deep research of suitable materials, venus data, lessons from previous venus missions, etc.

Our approach was to find a realistic solution to an existing problem, using our knowledge and our eagerness to learn and explore the space field.

The evolution of our project had several stages, each one differing from the previous by a minor or major change we thought of by new insights we discovered, by the mentors and judge's help, and by help from other team members.

Overall it was a great opportunity and wonderful experience, you'll see us next year! :)