High-Level Project Summary
Venus, the morning star, has sparked the curiosity of scientists throughout the past decades. Due to overconsuming the materials, scientists are willing to explore Venus to satisfy humans' need for materials. To navigate for resources, a device that resists the harsh climate conditions in Venus is needed to be found. Our team developed an energy storage system based on photovoltaic cells and lithium-sulfur batteries to solve the challenge. Having a small energy storage system that outlasts throughout the days without running out is essential. Thus, the chosen charging method depends on sunlight, and the chosen battery has high specific energy and energy density.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Our project solves the problem of finding an efficient energy storage system that can withstand the harsh conditions on Venus’s surface and power our rover for 60 continuous days.
Our solution consists of two parts which are the battery and the photovoltaic cell. Our battery is the lithium-Sulphur battery which is a fully rechargeable battery with 1500 charge and discharge cycles. It is a battery with a high energy density( 1.98*10^9 wh/m^3) and specific energy(550 wh/kg) relative to all the available batteries. Its cathode is the lithium rod, the anode is the Sulphur rod, and its electrolyte is an organic compound. The second part is the photovoltaic cell which changes the sunlight energy to electric energy through the photovoltaic effect. It is a physical-chemical phenomenon in which when light is absorbed, it causes the excitation of the atom, making the electron jump to a higher energy level. That creates a potential difference. At Venus’s surface, it generates power of 8.7 W/m^3
We found an energy storage system that can be used at Venus and can power the rover for 60 continuous days, and the system is fully rechargeable.
We hope to learn more about earth’s twin sister, which would help us understand our planet’s past and future. Moreover, make use of Venus’s resources.
We needed to provide a 3D illustration of our project, so we found a simple software that helped us serve that purpose which was sketch up. It is a simple 3D designing software that is easy for us.
Space Agency Data
We used data from NASA, especially from https://techport.nasa.gov/view/92914, that informed us about lithium Sulphur batteries and their properties and how they can be beneficial in exploring Venus. We used another data also from NASA from https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20150016298/downloads/20150016298.pdf that informed us about the possibility of using photovoltaic cells on the surface of Venus and how much energy they would produce.
Hackathon Journey
We describe our space app experience as a new and unique experience, as it helped us improve our teamwork and problem-solving skills. Moreover, to understand more about fascinating topics. It also helped us to know more about ourselves and our abilities. We also learned from this challenge the skill of team working, which is one of the most needed skills in practical life. Also, the challenge helped us to develop the skill of researching, and this skill would help us to have the ability to be self-independent people. The main reason that inspired us to choose this challenge is that the earth's resources are limited resources, and the number of people on the earth is continuously increasing, so finding new resources now is an essential purpose. Venus is from the planets that have significant resources. Our primary approach when developing this project is sustainability, so we chose the lithium-sulfur battery as it can be recharged more than 1500 times, and we chose the photovoltaic cells for recharging the battery, as illustrated by the 3d design. During the project, some events represented obstacles in the process. One of them was choosing the application used to implement the 3D model for the project. The selected application was too complex for the team, which needed an expert experience in 3D modelling. Although we only had a little time, the problem was managed, and another more uncomplicated application was used. Even though the application was less complex, it did not lower the quality of the model. We would like to thank the organizers for their efforts and the volunteers for their guidance
References
we used data from https://techport.nasa.gov/view/92914 that informed us about lithium Sulphur batteries and their properties and how it can be very useful in the exploration of Venus. we used another data from https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20150016298/downloads/20150016298.pdf that informed us about the possibility of using photovoltaic cells on the surface of Venus and how much energy would they produce. We also used the sketch up program to make a 3D design for the program
Tags
#Venus #lithium_sulpher_battery # rover #photovoltaic cells