1 INTRODUCING OUR IDEA

Our team has theorized and simulated the Tenis Memory System, a storage device which will be adaptable to some of the most extreme conditions in the solar system and specifically made for the quest to land a rover on Venus, for photographs and analysis of the surface of the unexplored planet.

1.1 Simulation of the Tenis Memory System

Using Visual Basic (VB.net) we programmed a running simulation of the system, of 1 byte (8 bits) and it can always be expanded to more. The source code can be found here: https://github.com/tolypash/tenis

1.2 How it works

A visual representation of the below explanation can be found in our programmed simulation (recommended)

The Tenis chip will be split into two parts: volatile and non-volatile making up 12.5% and 87.5% of the 8,388,608 cells respectively. All cells are identical. Each cell consists of a head and a base. A head has a temperature sensor and the base is kept at 600K using a Peltier module. The head is at a temperature of 733K, i.e. the average surface temperature on Venus. If temperature difference between head and base is less than 160K then that cell represents a 0 value. If the difference is more, then it represents a 1 value. The head remains at a constant temperature by insulation. The cells which are inside the chip are nanoscale so a much larger amount of data can be stored if need be. However, extensive lab research is needed to derive on how small a cell can be.

Volatile Memory

Our simulation displays how 12.5% (~1 million bits) of the memory will be stored. We call this section the “Volatile Memory”. In all cells the base is at a constant 600K, kept at this temperature using a Peltier Module. The head is heated using a grid which will be engaged or disengaged by the automaton when it needs to store data.

The configuration is originally at 0 and can be changed to a 1 configuration. These are represented by 2 thermal equilibrium states (1st and 3rd intersection of Q NF in and Q Cond out) and the configuration is kept in equilibrium by the thermal expansion of the stem, which causes the distance of the head and base to change, thus affecting the rate of heat energy conducted between them. The equilibrium state only changes after experiencing a temperature change greater than 27K, where rate of thermal energy conducted to the base equals to rate of thermal energy conducted of the head (3rd intersection). We set it at this value as the surface temperature of Venus does not fluctuate by this much.

We were also able to make this memory re-writable, as soon as the data is transmitted, another Peltier module is turned on facing the head, cooling it by 27K. This reverts all the cell's configuration back to 0 essentially deleting the previously stored information, allowing it to be re-written.

This graph shows a cell with a 0 configuration as temperature is at equilibrium of the 1st intersection (marked green)

Non-Volatile Memory

The other 87.5% of the memory will be used for logic and movement instructions, pre-programmed before the launch of the rover on earth and both the head and base will be kept at constant temperatures by preventing loss of heat energy by insulation using aerogel. A grid is not implemented here as the data does not need to be written on Venus. This part of the memory will be a lot more insulated than the volatile memory as volatile memory will only be needed to store data temporarily for transmission to a sattelite.

STORAGE TYPES

This device can store data in 3 forms. A 1 configuration represents a black pixel and a 0 configuration represents a white pixel, using only 1 bit for each pixel for simulation purposes but bit depth can be increased to use 8 bits per pixel thus photos can be stored and transmitted. Decimal and Hexidecimal allow letters and numbers to be stored so that surface analysis data of things like rocks and weather can be stored and transmitted.

1.3 Parameters

1. The 1MB storage will be achieved by having 8,388,608 of these cells as each cell stores an equivalent of 1 bit
2. We calculated the mass of a completely insulated and functioning system to be 20kg, this mass made up almost entirely from the aerogel insulation
3. The total size of the system will be 14x48x48 cm, we took the size of the chip to be of the order of a regular chip, taking this as a maximum size due to nanotechnology allowing much smaller sizes
4. Most metal components will be made from tungsten considering its extremely high melting point. At first it may seem as this would increase the mass significantly, but due to the nanoscale of the technology used, the increase in mass is contrarily negligible
5. All diagrams and graphs seen were made or simulated by the TenEleven team

Sources

These are the NASA sources we used:

1. Aerogel: https://data.nasa.gov/dataset/Carbon-based-aerogel-composites-for-radiation-shie/ca9s-69bzhttps://data.nasa.gov/dataset/Aerogel-Insulation-for-the-Thermal-Protection-of-V/4be5-at56 (that will be used in insulation either between cells or for the whole system)
2. Capacitors: https://data.nasa.gov/dataset/High-Temperature-Capacitors-for-Venus-Exploration-/2ma9-qtvu
3. Transistors: https://data.nasa.gov/dataset/High-Temperature-Telemetry-Transmitter-for-Venus-E/eezy-e4uj (2,3- electronic cutting edge technology that can be used for the supply of electricity for the computational mechanics of the automaton)
4. Surface Analysis: https://data.nasa.gov/dataset/Venus-Suface-Sampling-and-Analysis/hbms-4rz7 (the surface analysis that could be used in this automaton, all data that could be collected by this method can be stored using our memory system)