Future Power Solutions for Exploring Hypothesized Surfaces – Thin Film Perovskite Solar Cells Simulation
INSTITUTION
Arizona State University (ASU)
CLASS
Iridium Class (2024 – 2025)
STUDENT TEAM
ACADEMIC GUIDANCE
Prof. James McDonald
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
This project determined a viable power solution to a hypothesized future NASA mission to send a rover to the asteroid, Psyche. Our team reviewed many options for providing a robust power source for an exploratory rover mission. Psyche is a metallic asteroid and relatively small. This reduces the amount of power options. Due to the size and distance of the asteroid using a mission standard MMRTG is a difficult option because of its size and weight. The asteroid’s location is currently outside the orbit of Mars and that reduces the amount of solar power options available. A solar power system of sufficient size to power rover operation and instrumentation will not fit on the rover itself. The solution we researched was using recharging solar power base station to provide power to the rover. The base station is landed at an optimum point on Psyche for solar exposure. The base station contains a large solar array, communication equipment and a recharging port for the rover. This enables the rover to explore on mission and return to the base station for power resupply. The base station has optimum location for gathering solar energy to recharge its batteries and is continuously charging to gather the maximum amount of energy. A rover based solar power system would rarely be in optimum location and angle for solar power collection, which would greatly reduce its range and operating time.
We determined environmental conditions on Psyche with the NASA provided data reports on the asteroid. Many aspects of Psyche are still unclear, the information we have was gathered at long range by various radio telescope operations. The orbiter sent to Psyche for close analysis was launched Oct 13th, 2023 and will not reach the asteroid until July 2029, when a variety of instruments will gather crucial data. We used the information available and extrapolated a rover instrumentation and mission analysis. This gave us the parameters for a rover mission power profile. Using power parameters we determined the best solar system to use is the thin film Perovskite solar cells to provide efficient power at reduced weight.
We designed a model of the rover mission using photovoltaics, solar cell specification, instrumentation, Psyche landform estimates and standard rover mission profiles. We used Python to create an active model of the rover mission. Our model allows the user to track the movement of the rover, guide its direction, select instrumentation on and off and see the effects on the power system as it rolls throughout a standard mission day. The model shows that our rechargeable base station is a viable option for powering a groundbreaking first mission to the metallic asteroid, Psyche.
