Momentum - November 2020 - 15

BRIEFS

Time-lapse footage shows the drag sail deploying in the atrium of Neil
Armstrong Hall of Engineering at Purdue.
A rocket is going up into space with a drag sail. The goal? For
the drag sail to bring the rocket back to Earth, preventing it
from becoming like the thousands of pieces of space junk in
Earth's lower orbit. The drag sail, developed by Purdue
University engineers, will be on board a Firefly Aerospace rocket
expected to launch in November from Vandenberg Air Force
Base in California. This sail and six other "Dedicated Research
and Education Accelerator Mission" (DREAM) payloads are
flying on Firefly Aerospace's Alpha launch, the first flight for the
launch vehicle company. "High-value orbits around Earth are
getting congested," said David Spencer, a Purdue adjunct
associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and the
mission manager for the Mars Sample Return Campaign at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboraroty. "If we don't get satellites or
other launch vehicle components out of orbit, then eventually
highly utilized orbits are going to become unusable for other
space systems," he said. "Drag sail technology is designed to
launch with a host spacecraft or launch vehicle and deploy at
the end of the host vehicle's mission.

Zhiao Yu

NEW BATTERY ELECTROLYTE MAY
BOOST EV PERFORMANCE

A conventional (clear) electrolyte on the left and the novel Stanford
electrolyte on the right.
Stanford researchers have demonstrate how their novel
electrolyte design boosts the performance of lithium metal
batteries, a promising technology for powering electric

MOMENTUM

vehicles, laptops, and other devices. "Most electric cars run on
lithium-ion batteries, which are rapidly approaching their
theoretical limit on energy density," said study co-author Yi
Cui, professor of materials science and engineering and of
photon science at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratoy.
"Our study focused on lithium metal batteries, which are lighter
than lithium-ion batteries and can potentially deliver more
energy per unit weight and volume." Lithium-ion batteries,
used in everything from smartphones to electric cars, have two
electrodes - a positively charged cathode containing lithium
and a negatively charged anode usually made of graphite. An
electrolyte solution allows lithium ions to shuttle back and
forth between the anode and the cathode when the battery is
used and when it recharges.

WITH GRANT, TEXAS A&M PURSUES
TRANSFORMATIONAL ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy

Purdue University video/Erin Easterling

PURDUE TECHNOLOGY DRAG SAIL
PULLS ROCKET BACK TO EARTH

Texas A&M received the award from the Aviation-class Synergistically
Cooled Electric-motors with integrated Drives (ASCEND) program.
Texas A&M Engineering researchers have been awarded $1.3
million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's
Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). With
the award, researchers will focus on the design, fabrication,
and testing of a lightweight and ultra-efficient electric
powertrain for aircraft propulsion to reduce the energy costs
and emissions of aviation. The Texas A&M team is led by
principal investigator Dr. Hamid Toliyat, Raytheon Professor in
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and
recent Texas A&M graduate Dr. Matthew Gardner ('19), who is
an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. The
team's technology will reach unprecedented peak power
density and efficiency via (1) an axial flux motor with
lightweight carbon fiber reinforced structural material, (2) a
GaN multilevel inverter, (3) a thermally conductive
nanocomposite electrical insulation, and (4) a two-phase
thermal management system with zeolite thermal energy
storage to absorb the excess heat generated during takeoff. n

November 2020 15
Momentum - November 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Momentum - November 2020
