FireWay| Let's Connect
Awards & Nominations
FireWay has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Best Use of Technology
Let's Connect
USC - Universal Space Connector
Summary
We present a new type of universal connector for liquid, gasses and electricity transportation.
How We Addressed This Challenge
Average communications satellite costs about $300 million to build, roughly $100 million to launch and operates for about 15 years. When the fuel us fully used, the satellite is not able to keep the orbit and starts drifting, loosing communication and being useless
Refueling will allow extending life cycle of satellite, enabling companies and governments to save money on the development and launch of replacements.
We are considering liquid and gas types of fuel.
For two component fuel - the transportation will be implemented through two different channels. After the satellites are refueled the drainage system will provide the evaporation of fuel residues to avoid an explosion after undocking.
Number of different channels for liquids or gasses can be extended, to match any needs.
The refueling station with the plug and implementation of the socket at satellites will allow to extend the lifetime of satellites.
It also can be used for interconnection of modules of space stations or assembled on orbit space ships.
Furthermore, the universal connector will be used in future, for interplanetary fuel stations and facilitate the processes of colonisation of our Solar system.
How We Developed This Project
Why this project:
Our team consists of hardware engineers, astrophysics and fronted developer. We have chosen task, which can be done by all of us using our researching skills and hardware design experience. We have started from searching of already existing refueling project and missions. Most of them are using complex procedure and tools for this task, so we have decided to develop small, light, cheap, universal connector, which can be easily added to almost all satalites with minimum overhead.
Tools:
For 3d modeling we are using SolidWorks. Prototype is printed on 3D printer with PLA plastic
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
We have searched for existed refueling missions - now they are too complex and expensive. We have discovered that some research and communication satellites can cost more than $500m and most of them have to be retired due to run out of fuel. In opposite, rocket launch are getting cheaper and can carry extra fuel to existent missions.
Project Demo
https://youtu.be/l7BzFrY0YKI
Project Code
Data & Resources
Example of existent space refueling missions: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/robotic-tool-operations-bring-in-space-refueling-closer-to-reality
https://nexis.gsfc.nasa.gov/rrm_refueling_task.html
Fuel types in satellites:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/overview/index.html
Sealing materials, ised in space: https://www.spacematdb.com/spacemat/datasearch.php?name=Viton%20B910