will present their projects next week at the jubilee aviation and space conference that will be held this week in Tel Aviv and the Technion
Students in the Faculty of Aeronautics and Space Engineering at the Technion, which is currently celebrating its anniversary, developed a stealthy "UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)", a theoretical "lunar space elevator", a "flying dragonfly" and a satellite navigation system. They will present their projects at the jubilee conference for aviation and space, which will be held next week in Tel Aviv and the Technion.
Dr. Ehud Kroll, who is responsible for presenting the students' projects at the conference, said that the "stealth UAV" was designed to operate at a distance of about 3,000 kilometers without refueling. It can carry two "smart bombs" weighing 500 kilograms each, and is equipped with various sensors (electro-optical, infrared and radar) that allow operation even in the dark and in all weather conditions. Seven students worked on the project under the guidance of Dror Atzi.
The "space elevator" was designed to bring the helium-3 isotope from the moon to Earth. This material is very rare on Earth, but can be used as nuclear fuel. The planned system consists of trailers weighing a ton and a half that "travel" on a cable 325,000 km long, from the surface of the moon to orbit around the earth and back. The car's travel time in one direction is about 200 hours, and it is powered by solar energy. According to the planning students, such an "elevator" between the moon and the earth is possible and feasible using existing technologies. Within five years it will be possible to return the investment in it, in the amount of 15 billion dollars, assuming that every year about five tons of helium-3 will be imported into Israel. Five students designed the system, under the direction of Dr. Alexander Kogan.
The "Flying Dragonfly" is an aircraft with a wingspan of 23 cm and a body 20 cm long, powered by an electric battery and flapping with its four wings. A prototype has already been built and demonstrated in flight inside the building of the Faculty of Aeronautics and Space Engineering at the Technion. The dragonfly's relatively slow speed allows it to easily enter rooms through small windows and send images from a tiny camera that can be mounted on it. Eight students built it, under the guidance of Professor Benny Landkoff.
The "IRNA" satellite navigation system is a concept for a regional navigation system based on a "mother satellite" and four "daughter satellites". The "girls" are nano-satellites weighing less than 9 kg, the whole system was designed to be a cheaper replacement for existing GPS systems. The project was carried out by seven students under the guidance of Dr. Alexander Kogan.
About the jubilee conference for aerospace sciences
The annual Israeli conference for aerospace sciences is celebrating an anniversary this year. The conference, which lasts two days, has been held every year since 1959, except for 1974 due to the Yom Kippur War. It is the main event where people in the field, from academia, industry and the security forces, meet and update themselves on the latest innovations in the field of aviation and space.
About a hundred people participated in the first conference, while in recent years the number of participants has been approaching a thousand - which reflects the amazing growth of the aerospace industry in Israel - from unmanned aerial vehicles, through missile systems to satellites and launchers. The conference will take place on Wednesday, February 17.2 at the Dan-Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv and on Thursday, February 18.2 at the Technion in Haifa.
On the occasion of the 50th conference, two special activities will be held. One, a panel of leaders in the major defense industries - the Aerospace Industry, Elbit Systems and Rafale, where the latest innovations in unmanned aerial vehicles and the "Iron Dome" anti-missile system will be revealed. The second activity is the meeting of 50 cohorts - of the graduates of the Faculty of Aeronautics and Space Engineering at the Technion, which the large majority of the participants in the conference for their generations finished - a meeting that will be held on the first evening, in Tel Aviv.
At the conference, a number of invited lectures will be given: on tiny insect-like flying vehicles by Prof. Wei Shi from the University of Michigan in the USA, a lecture on shock waves and the damage they cause - by Prof. Gabi Ben-Dor, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Ben Gurion University, and Prof. Norbert Peters from Aachen University in Germany will talk about turbulent phenomena in fire. The guest of honor at the conference will be Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz, Minister of Science and Technology.
13 תגובות
the lift is a brilliant idea
because it will be connected to the moon and not to earth
this fact will be very helpful for the cable weight - moon gravity is low
earth gravity will make the cable stable
Eli.
Cheers: In the past, they said "heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible" (Lord Kelvin, chairman of the British Royal Society and top physicist at the time 1895) This did not prevent the Wright brothers from taking off 10 years later, and me from flying to the USA two years ago
For you to read an enlightening book called "The Opinion of the Brains" which reviews the phenomenon of knowledge, declarations and excessive confidence of experts and of course also the experts.
If we don't check how to do anything impossible.. we will never do anything..
Even a normal elevator was once impossible.
In recent years with the development of nano technologies, the idea of the space elevator is starting to take shape. The cable will be a tape up to a meter wide made of carbon nanotube fibers whose strength-to-weight ratio is a hundred times more than steel.
The discussed space elevator idea seems brilliant to me!
We usually talk about a space elevator anchored on Earth.
The design of this elevator makes sense and you can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator
Itzik: In the above link you will find the answers to your questions.
The problem with the space elevator discussed so far and the description of which I mentioned above is - as mentioned - the problem of the weight of the cable.
The situation with the space elevator proposed here is different because the Moon's gravity is much smaller (just over XNUMX percent of Earth's mass).
I haven't read the work done by the students, but I assume that the principle of operation of the elevator is a little different from the principle of operation of a space elevator anchored to the earth.
I assume that part of the force that pulls the weight on the end of the cable is simply the Earth's gravity.
Another source of the beauty of the idea is that the Earth is always visible from the Moon at the same point in the sky (the Earth is "moon-synchronous") and this means that the elevator will not just wander around the Moon, but that it will always be aimed at the Earth.
So it's true: the ores still have to be moved the rest of the distance, but it's still a much smaller distance.
To me it's just beautiful.
In that case it is clear that the cable will not reach the atmosphere at all. Then Itzik's words are irrelevant..
Anyway.. it is not clear to me how they will prevent the cable from waving in all directions and bringing down some UFOs on the way 🙂
Sorry for the spelling mistake
Sages first solved problems on the ground and maybe Asimov will rest on his laurels in peace
For Lior, the difference between the nearest point and the farthest point of the moon from the Earth is over 40000 km (over the circumference of the Earth!) Today the space station orbits the Earth at a distance of a few hundred kilometers and as you can see it is quite a story to change crews . Now think about the almost hundred times greater distance at the far point. That's why the "story" of how they think to solve this problem (mainly the change in distance) is interesting.
There is something I don't understand about the idea of a space elevator:
As I understand it, the elevator is based on the idea of a geosynchronous satellite (above the equator) and a cable that reaches the ground.
In order to put a satellite into orbit, it is necessary to give it height and speed.
If only the cable is used to "pull" the lifters up, then in the satellite volume the elevator will pull down and also slow down (lose energy). This is due to the fact that they use a cable and not a hard tower.
In order for it to maintain its trajectory, it will be necessary to give it the energy it lost while pulling the load.
Za that he would have to operate a rocket engine.
The question is, is this process more efficient than a conventional launch?
Whether you like it or not, there will be a space elevator, you just have to plan everything correctly so that it will last several hundred years.
It is written that the elevator will reach a certain orbit around the earth, and perhaps the meaning is that a shuttle will take the cargo from there and land it... it is not clear from the article.
Cheers: Is the weight what bothers you? In my opinion, there are problems that are more "weighty". For example: the distance between the moon and the earth is not constant. How will they overcome the required differences in the length of the cable? And more problems over and over again. It will be intellectually interesting to read about the development to see what the solutions to the various problems are (regarding the weight, it was never thought that things heavier than air could stay in the air and yet the jumbo planes fly. Although these are different physical conditions, I assume that the subject of the weight, and more precisely, the applied pressures On the cable, there are the appropriate calculations and perhaps already the applicability)
An elevator to space is a wild imagination that has no correct computational basis.
The cable has weight and cannot support itself to be as strong as possible.
So don't waste your time on impractical nonsense.