Space Apps Challenge 2018

Voyager 1, humanity’s furthest probe, has been flying for nearly 41 years now. Travelling at 11 km/sec, it continues to send us data from far out in the solar system. But not for long. Soon, the onboard batteries will die out and the instruments onboard will shut down.

This is a problem most probes face. Despite reaching exotic places far off in the universe, they eventually run out of power to send any data back home. For us to send interstellar probes, we need to look for a power source that doesn’t die out with time or distance.

CMOON present our solution to this power crisis- cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays are jets of highly energized particles- electrons, protons, neutrinos, Ý-rays, etc. that come from various processes in the cosmos. This energy can be harvested and used to power our instruments throughout the journey.

WHY MOON?

On Earth, we are protected from these radiations by the Earth’s magnetosphere. It causes these particles to be deflected towards the poles of the Earth, rather than hitting the surface. Their interactions with the atmosphere is what causes the beautiful Northern Lights in the polar regions. This, however, also blocks us from using them as a potential power source. On the moon, we face no such issue. With no magnetosphere of its own, the moon provides an ideal testing ground for our studies of this potential source of energy that we can, perhaps in the future, use to power our colonies on the Moon, and even Mars.

THE LANDING SITE

The spacecraft would land near the Lunar South Pole, 10km off the Cabeus crater- the landing site of the LCROSS spacecraft, that subsequently proved the existence of water ice there. The crater contains regions of permanent shadow, that allow the ice to survive. The water found would be used to power our radiolysis experiments. In the future, a Lunar base would be sustainable here- possibly powered by the cosmic rays. The slight shadowing of the region, and the generally flat area is a perfect landing site for the spacecraft. It’s shadowed regions also allow us to get readings from a variety of stand-points, to analyze the radiation flux. This was also supported by data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, that analyzed cosmic radiations on the Lunar surface.

HARVESTING ENERGY

We have selected a few methods of energy generation from the vast sea of ideas:

RADIOLYSIS

Inspired by the potential life-powering capabilities of the radiations from the Jovian atmosphere incident on the icy surface of Europa, we propose to use the same mechanism to power our interstellar endeavors. Cosmic rays can be used to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen gases. These could not only be combusted and used to run turbines, but can also act as rocket fuel to accelerate the probe.

SCINTILLATION

Using a photomultiplier tube, the cosmic rays will be spread out and made to incident on a metallic surface, ejecting out electrons. Done in multiple slabs of a mesh-like metallic structure, this would complement the power output from the radiolysis tanks.

OTHER EXPERIMENTS

While studying power generation from cosmic rays, the spacecraft would also look into developing a human base on the Moon. It would study the effect of the radiation on living tissues for extended periods of time. It would also test out mechanisms to reduce the radiation dosage on humans embarking on long missions such as those to Mars. It would test out various materials to act as cosmic ray insulators, or absorbers, so they could be channeled to our power generating station.

FUTURE IMPLEMENTATIONS

The technologies developed on the spacecraft could have far reaching consequences-

Could be used to build a Lunar observatory

Could be the beginning of a lunar base

Could be used aboard interstellar probes to power them, so they can continue to send data from further out in the universe

Could be used to keep nuclear batteries warm, such as in the cold nights on Mars, or during sandstorms, when solar power fails.