pEAky ailerons

Dnipro | Let It Go (Without A Bang)

HydroPush

High-Level Project Summary

We decided to develop a unique device for reefing line cutting, which does not imply the use of explosions in the course of its work. Why is it important? To reduce the dynamic and inertial loads during the filling of the canopy, the corrugation of the lower edge of the parachute is used. However, then we need to get maximum resistance, that is, to cut a reefing line and let the canopy open fully. Pyrotechnic devices which are in use nowadays require extra safety protocols, can only be used once, and create large impact loads. Our solution solves the aforementioned problems and is a safer replacement for existing analogs.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16b2MztRsQ-D-ZiU7ZKTjhVQFWijekn8aqBmNA5GPZEM/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19e51OQOGdhAJx2k3bIdHTXdtXoldX-g9NMr5bHyPEr4/edit?usp=sharing

Detailed Project Description

What exactly does it do? How does it work?

"HydroPush" is a parachute sling cutter. Today's rocket science uses pyrotechnic charges for this purpose, but this has its drawbacks. We suggest cutting the slings with a special mechanism.

Our device is a small guillotine which is set in motion by a spring and a change in pressure in the device at a certain point in time. Let's break it down in more detail.

The device is a hydraulic cylinder (3) made of titanium. Inside the cylinder there is a piston (7) with a blade (1), a spring (5), a compartment (2) filled with technical oil, a pair of solenoids (4) and a subassembly of capacitors (6). A timer mounted inside the device is used to start the mechanism. At the right moment, the timer sets off the solenoids, which in turn sucks in the metal rods and opens the valves. Oil escapes from the compartment through the opened valves into a specially designed part of the cylinder. Due to the change in pressure, a pre-charged spring shoots out and thus sharply actuates the piston with the blade. The blade cuts the parachute sling.

The device is mounted on the body of the spacecraft similar to how modern pyrotechnic charges are mounted. Some procedure must be done before the spacecraft is launched. This process must be carried out several months before launch, taking into account the preservation of the vehicle and pre-launch preparations. The compartment has to be filled under pressure with technical oil and thus the spring has to be armed. The supercapacitors, which trigger the electromagnets, must be charged.

Advantages:

Our design improves the parachute separation process because with HydroPush, inertial and dynamic loads are not as violent as with pyrotechnic counterparts. It also makes our solution safer. We use a pair of valves and two solenoids to increase the system reliability. According to calculations, the weight of our proposed device is 158 grams, which is much less than known counterparts. The overall dimensions do not exceed analogs already in use, which makes it easy to replace existing devices with "HydroPush". The design we developed is reusable, in order to reuse the device, you need to fill the compartment with new oil, arm the spring and charge the ionic cells. In addition, no parts of the mechanism are released into the environment during operation, which is much better for the environment than using charges.

What we hope to achieve:

Make this world better!) We believe that our solution will help stabilise the parachute separation process and make it more stable and reliable. In addition, the modern generation has to take care of the environment. The device we are proposing does not release any work products into the environment, so it is environmentally friendly. We were inspired by the example of the Kevlar sling scissors used by parachutists. Our aim is to extend this idea to the parachutes of descent vehicles from orbit as well.

Our tools:

We made extensive use of the messengers Telegram, Discord, Zoom and NASA Space App Chat during creating the project. For modelling we used Fusion 360 and Autodesk Inventor. For calculations we used Mathcad. For graphical design we used Microsoft PowerPoint and Adobe Photoshop. We also used Google Docs cloud resources for discussion and design.

Perspectives

For the project:

can be developed into a full-fledged start-up;
coulter can be sold as a separate product;
can be used both for manned missions, for cargo parachutes and for the rescue system of the geophysical rockets;

For the humanity:

will not increase the amount of space debris;
as it’s a unified project, it will be able to save the time and human resources for the companies;

Space Agency Data

We used NASA`s technical reports to get a fuller picture of the challenge. We also benefited from NASA's diagrams, charts and descriptions of parachute designs, descent and landing systems.

In addition, we actively used information from the Internet to calculate the electromechanical part of the design, to determine system parameters, to familiarise ourselves with existing solutions and general problems.

https://trs.jpl.nasa.gov/bitstream/handle/2014/45484/14-0701_A1b.pdf?sequence=1

Information about the shape memory alloy (SMA)-based launch lock helped us to understand all of the advantages and disadvantages of this method, which is alternative to pyrotechnic cutting method. Moreover, it inspired us to find out more information about the other methods.

Taking into the account all advantages and disadvantages of the analogues, we have managed to create our own.

Hackathon Journey

Developing something in a very limited time is always really challenging. Such competitions provide a wonderful experience of teamwork, brainstorming, and the generation of ideas in large quantities develops the ability to choose the main thing from a large amount of information.

This challenge attracted our team with its diversity and a large number of nuances. It challenged our creativity. First of all, we identified a specific problem for ourselves, for which we will offer a solution - reefing line cutting - then we generated ideas of a different plan, after which we chose from them those that we would work on in more detail so that in the end we would choose only one, the only one :) Often it was necessary to look at the problem from different perspectives, which was very unusual and challenging. Having decided on the concept, it was necessary to check everything with calculations and to start preparing a presentation.

It was a wonderful experience that brought us together even more as a team!