Exploring Venus Together
Energy Storage Technology Development for
Venus Exploration
Our team Exploring Hell:
Hazem Waleed
Fady Sherif
Amir Ashraf
Mohamed Samy
Beshoy Saad
Yassen Mostafa
Background:
Venus, the “greenhouse planet”, is a scientifically fascinating place. This mission design study focuses on Venus, sometimes called Earth’s sister planet because it is closest to the Earth in distance, and similar to Earth in size. Despite its similarity to Earth, however, the climate of Venus is vastly different from Earth’s. Understanding the atmosphere, climate, geology, and history of Venus could shed considerable light on our understanding of our home planet. Venus has been explored by several missions from Earth, including the Russian Venera missions which landed probes on the surface, the American Pioneer missions which flew both orbiters and atmospheric probes to Venus, and the Russian “Vega” mission, which floated balloons in the atmosphere of Venus, and most recently the American Magellan mission which mapped the surface by radar imaging. While these missions have answered basic questions about Venus, telling us the surface temperature and pressure, the elevations and topography of the continents, and the composition of the atmosphere and clouds, scientific mysteries still abound.
Mission goals:
At 460 ◦C, with 93 Barr of the carbon-dioxide atmosphere, and shrouded in sulfuric acid clouds, the surface of Venus is a difficult place for the operation of a probe. The longest-lived of the Russian Venera landers lasted less than two hours on the surface of Venus. One American Pioneer probe made it to the surface and survived about an hour. The surface of Venus is an extremely hostile environment! The objective was to develop Regenerative fuel cell systems (RFCs), a technology-enabled exploration of Venus’s surface. The mission includes a surface rover or lander, designed with an operational lifetime of more than 60 days on the surface of Venus.
Our Solution:
Our solution was designed to provide electrical power and stores energy for a probe operating on the surface of Venus. The fuel cell chosen was a CO/O2 fuel cell, using a doped zirconia solid electrolyte. This was chosen over hydrogen because of the difficulty of hydrogen storage at high temperatures. Carbon dioxide, on the other hand, is the main component of the Venus atmosphere. This allows the possibility of using ambient CO2 as the source material. The fuel cell can be made rechargeable by the addition of an electrolyzer. This electrolyzer can be powered by an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) 236fa is recommended to be used as a pressurant.
Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG):
ASRG produces electricity by a triple energy transformation: it first turns the thermal energy from the hot radioisotope fuel into the high-speed kinetic motion of a small piston and its companion displacer. In turn, this magnetized piston oscillates back and forth through a coil of wire, thereby generating a flow of electrical energy (using a property of physics known as Faraday’s Law). The heat for this thermoelectric process comes from the decay of the radioisotope plutonium-238 (Pu-238).
The ASRG converts its total input heat of 500 thermal watts into about 130 electrical watts available to power spacecraft systems and instruments. The remaining 75 percent of the input heat could be used for keeping those systems and instruments at their proper operating temperatures.
ASRG Facts:
Power Output: 130 Watts (beginning of mission) Efficiency: 26 percent
Total Mass: 70 pounds (32 kilograms)
Fuel: 2.7 pounds (1.2 kilograms) of plutonium dioxide protected in two General Purpose Heat Source Modules
Dimensions: 2.5 feet long (76 centimeters); 1.5 feet by 1.3 feet wide (46 by 39 centimeters)
Design Lifetime: At least 17 years
Pressurant:
If the electronics are at Venus pressure, the interior needs to be sealed from atmosphere. The mass required for a pressure vessel to withstand 92 bar surface pressure of Venus is impractical, and hence it is desirable that interior of the electronics enclosure should be pressurized to prevent it from being crushed. The pressurizing gas needs to have low thermal conductivity. Several approaches to pressurization were investigated. A cylinder of compressed gas could be brought to Venus and the enclosure pressurized on descent. Another approach is to use a material that can be transported as a liquid, and then vaporizes at the equilibrium temperature of the electronics enclosure. Several pressurant gasses were investigated. The pressurant selected was the hydrofluorocarbon HFC 236fa. This has the properties of extremely low thermal conductivity, storable in liquid form for transport, gaseous at the operating temperature, and highly inert.
Our Impact:
This project will help the scientists:
All this points will give the scientists more fields to make researches .
The project will give missions in Venus more time to finish thus, its will make long lived missions on Venus’ surface, and it considers as one of the most effective points in the project.