A spaceship for Mars: A student group from SVCE has designed a cheap and reliable vehicle for a NASA contest. The idea was as far away from their mind as Mars is from Earth. But NASA’s call, ‘Join the International Inspiration Mars Student Design Contest’, was irresistible. “Lets go for it,” said Vishnu, Vishal and their friends at Shri Venkateshwara College of Engineering. And that’s how it happened. Inspiration Mars proposed a two-person-manned flyby project to Mars by 2018, and presented it to NASA and the congress. The topic was alluring — anyone who could design a cheap, safe and reliable round-trip mission, taking care of the technology, cost, efficiency and schedule could apply. The boys were hooked. “We were extremely interested in the idea of sending humans to follow the Martian Orbit, and wanted to create a design that would be unique,” they said. They discussed the major challenge — How to sustain humans in a closed cylinder for over 500 days? The answer – by reducing the duration to escape harmful galactic-cosmic- radiation (GCR) and the physiological effects of micro-gravity. Reduced duration meant a faster spacecraft, which would make the return-trip quicker. The trajectory chosen would demand less launch energy and accommodate more payload mass. The additional payload mass meant additional shielding material against GCR and the reduced duration would translate into reduced need for life-support systems. But the high re-entry velocity had to be countered with a sophisticated thermal shield and navigation. The group scoured the Internet for inputs, contacted relevant institutes for clarifications and asked their faculty for suggestions. Outside of that, the proposal, its concept and ideation, was theirs. The going was far from easy. Problems relating to radiation-shielding and high-speed re-entry had no solution. And these two aspects could turn catastrophic if not dealt with. They also found sizing of the overall payload, with respect to the launch vehicle capacity, to be challenging. The organisers, however, had not included actual experimental results in their problem statement. The team could showcase their output through computer-modelling, which is a no-cost option. That said, a big expenditure awaited them when the results were announced. They had made it to the finals — the only Indian team among the ten global finalists. The trip to Houston, Texas had to be funded. “Our college came and provided the fund for one member,” the team adds. And when the presentation was over, the mission proposal was accepted by the judges. “They said that our ideas were feasible and can be realized in the actual mission,” said Vishal. The students were promised due recognition.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 11:00:00 +0000
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