We are very happy to welcome our new sponsor TresCom Technology!

TresCom provides us with technical facilities and ressource logistics.

Why we appreciate this avenue:

We will have access to the knowledge of a team experienced in communication and traffic engineering.

We think this is an important step towards technical realization of hardware modules.

…and thank´s for your true interest in collaboration!

Here is Carsten´s report:
As I’m striving towards a bigger understanding on Alice propulsion technologies I attended OZ-10. This is a conference on recent advances in nano technologies organized by ZOZ GmbH – a german company that is a global player in nano materials.

The questions I hoped to get an answer to were: 1. Where to obtain nano aluminum? 2. If it is too expansive: How to produce it on my own? 3. How to deal with the powder itself? Especially: What safety requirements do I have to meet?

I got most of the answers but first of all I will cover the conference itself. It took place in the townhall of Wenden, which is a small town in the german countryside. I planned to arrive one day before the beginning of the conference. Alas, these plans were foiled by the storm “Xanthia” which caused damage to the railway power lines so I was forced to interrupt my journey for one night some hundred kilometers before reaching my destination. Nevertheless participants arrived from all over the world, especially from the far east (there were referees from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China) – even the US Airforce was present. The main topics of this conference were: surface coatings and new high performance materials in mechanical engineering, in battery storage technologies and in hydrogen storage technologies. The absolute highlight of the conference – from my point of view – was the presentation of Zentallium (by Bayer MaterialScience) which is an alloy of aluminum and carbon nano tubes that is somewhat lighter than pure aluminum but as strong as steel.

I soon figured out that I was exactly in the right place to learn about nano aluminum as some of the attendants had lots of experience with this material. But I also had to hear that I severly underestimated the dangers of nano aluminum. Fresh aluminum surfaces are highly reactive. So if nano aluminum that was produced in an oxygen-free athmosphere is exposed to air it bursts into flames immediatly. This was known to me before, but what I did not know is that even nano aluminum with an oxide layer (so it is stable in air) can cause dust explosions. Also mixing the powder with water is dangerous if the oxide layer is too thin. So it is important to control the thickness of the oxide layer or alternatively the layer of some chemical deactivation agent.

Because of these dangers (and because of its short lifetime) it is not easy to buy nano aluminum. Big companies will only deliver to other big companies or governmental institutions. But it is possible to cheaply buy aluminum powder with a particle size of a few mircrons. This would be a good starting point for further milling to a smaller size. For this purpose we could build a simple ball mill on our own – the only challenge would be to figure out good milling parameters to actually achieve nano sized powder. Nevertheless safety measures have to be applied that can only be met by bigger institutions. So my next goal will be to find support by universities.

“…to touch Moon, asteroids and beyond.” Peter Diamandis, X-Prize Founder to the GLXP-Teams at JPL, Pasadena.

In diesem Sinne gehen wir just one step beyond moon: zum Mars und freuen uns auf

Jürgen Herholz, Vorstandsmember der Mars Society Deutschland e.V.

Als Experte bemannter europäischer Raumfahrt jahrelang bei der ESA tätig,
wird er über die Mars Aktivitäten und das Archimedes Projekt berichten:

http://marssociety.de/html/

http://www.archimedes-ballon.de/

Im Anschluss Diskussion zum Thema “Die Entwicklung eines nicht-staatlichen Raumfahrt-Sektors”.

Es gibt viel zu berichten!

Am Donnerstag Abend auf der Open Moon Lounge auf der c-base
informieren uns Neven und Patrick über Ablauf des Summits, Stimmung in den Teams,
Rechtliches, Chancen und Schwierigkeiten des Projekts weltweit.

Ihr seid alle herzlich eingeladen!

Die transmediale 2010 steht wieder an!
c-base und Open Moon sind mit “Phuturity Now” dabei.

Montag, 01 Feb 2010 22:00:00 c-base, rungestr.20
c-rove – Open Moon rover design & development by Inspector Benone & Mars

Mittwoch, 3. Feb 2010 14:00:00 Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
PHUTURAMA – Symposium on Speculative, Fictious and Futuristic Design
Neven Dološ: “One satellite per user!”

Donnerstag, 04 Feb 2010 20:30:00 GMT c-base, rungestr.20
PHUTURAMA-LOUNGE
c-base Open Moon Project

Am 29.12.2009 ab 17:00 Uhr auf der c-base, rungestr.20, 10179 berlin.

Lifter von Rigs of Rod hat uns ein geniales Echtzeit-Simulationsvideo aufgenommen!
Der c-rove ist auf der Mondoberfläche unterwegs…oder: wie steil darf der Abhang sein?

c-base Raumstation, Rungestr. 20, S/U Jannowitzbrücke

Zum zweiten Mal können wir euch eine interessante Vollmondveranstaltung präsentieren:

Wir modellieren die Zukunft von Open Moon!

Wir simulieren mit “Rigs of Rods”, ob der c-rove auf der Mondoberfläche auch wirklich fährt.

Das Modeler-Forum Berlin-Brandenburg zeigt uns mit dem CONSIDEO-MODELER, welchen Erfolg das Projekt haben wird.

Der c-rove Prototyp wird mit Lego-Mindstorms weiter Gestalt annehmen. Alle Veranstaltungen sind zum Mitmachen.

Der Eintritt ist frei.

Das Open Moon Team wurde unerwartet verstärkt!

Patrick ist aus Stuttgart nach Berlin gezogen um dabei zu sein.

Er berät als Geschäftsführer der mindXchange Ltd. größere Firmen beim Einsatz kollaborativer Methoden.

Für Open Moon wird er das Team mit den bei mindXchange Ltd. entwickelten Open Innovation Methoden und Werkzeugen beraten:

“Ich will die Wikipedia der Raumfahrt!”

c-rove´s new wheel system

The new spokes are attached to the hub of the wheel.

Constructioneer Benone is showing the complete new wheel system with modified axis. Please note the extended spoke on the left side, giving a hint how ductile the rim is.

The perfect length of spokes still has to be investigated.