SIME-So Into Mars Exploration
Have you ever wanted a rocket pack to soar amongst the sky? Now you can … on Mars… Gravity is less, atmospheric density is less, and the vistas are breathtaking. So come to Mars...
Buck Rogers aside, Mars is an interesting environment for out-of-this-world mobility options for an explorer. This challenge asks for the definition of a conceptual mobility solution to allow an astronaut to easily and rapidly explore Mars including overcoming obstacles such as cliffs, ravines and other difficult terrain. The solution should be person-portable and any means or source of propulsion be locally produced.
This challenge can be answered by:
- producing an app to simulate your adventures in building your jet pack and flying around Mars;
- produce an app that provides the local gravity, atmospheric conditions (density, weather, anything-else-of-interest) to help decide what is needed for your jet pack design;
- perform a feasibility/conceptual study of an actual jet pack design that could use potential Mars fuel sources; or Design and Demonstrate a model scale jet pack using hardware.
SIME (So Into Mars Exploration) is a Jet pack which helps you to explore Mars in a fun and easy way. Key points to consider are the low density of Martian atmosphere which is only 0.6% of the Earth's and less gravity-38% than Earth's. Since the propeller's thrust is proportional to the density, this would result in a lower thrust on Mars. However, on the positive side, the gravity is lower and the aerodynamic drag is almost non existent, which helps this solution significantly. Our design basically consists 2 ducted fans used for lifting the astronaut as well as 2 oxygen nozzles placed on the back for adjusting the direction in which we are moving. Each of the fans is powered by an electrical motor. For solving one of the biggest issues concerning the jet pack which is the fuel, we decided to go with a fuel cell system. Based on the research and calculations that we did, if we were to use stored electrical power in an ion-lithium battery, it would be nearly impossible since the jet pack should be able to last 30 minutes, the size and weight of that battery would make this solution impractical. The fuel cell system has one of the highest power-to-weight ratio which is around 967 W/kg on the market and 1500 W/kg in research facilities. In this way, we would be able to reduce the total weight of the jet pack and hence make it less energy consuming.
For the fuel cell system we would need a semiconductor layers with an electrolyte in between, a highly compressed hydrogen gas tank and an oxygen gas tank. The oxygen gas tank is going to serve 3 purposes which are: horizontal as well as side to side movement, breathing and oxygen intake for the anode in the fuel cell system, since the oxygen level of the Martian atmosphere are a lot lower then Earth's.
Since our main concern is the safety of the astronauts we wanted to make the whole construction of the jet pack as strong as possible with proper regards to keeping the weight light. In order to achieve this we discovered a super strong and super light material that would bе used for the hydrogen and oxygen gas tank as well as the whole package. The material is a high entropy nanocrystalline alloy produced by mechanical alloying of Aluminium, Lithium, Magnesium, Scandium and Titanium, with a low density of 3,91 g/cm^3.
For the fans we would use graphene which is also a very strong material. We discovered that these materials would sustain the harsh conditions of the Martian atmosphere.
For this project we used information from the following resources:
