Amount of funding awarded
2903.96
Budget Report
View budget report.
How the program has supported you
The Sabatier Fuel Plant project aims to generate methane for potential Mars in-situ energy production. Our short-term goals included producing any amount of methane, iterating, and improving the design, and conducting tests to determine efficiency, necessary power, and the best gas ratios. With the PAF we were able to create and safely operate the modular reactor system setup which can produce methane. The system includes mass flow controllers, a packed bed reactor, electrical and control systems to regulate any of the operating conditions. Our major long-term goal was to produce a scientific paper describing our challenges and successes during our project while giving members hands on experience. Members have gained many skills, both technical and non-technical, through building and operating the reactor. With these results we were selected as one of the 13 student teams to present our research at IAC 2022.
Outcomes
On average, the UBC Mars Colony team had about 20+ students working on the Sabatier Fuel Plant Project throughout the year on 3 different subteams – Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical. All teams were responsible for the development of the test reactor, which involved working with high temperatures, pressurized gases, high voltage components and toxic catalysts. The mechanical team members learned how to assemble industry standard tubing and how to simulate fluid flow of the reactor. The chemical team members learned many important non-technical skills by negotiating with external companies to analyze our gas samples. By combining classroom learning with hands-on experimental design, team members were able to gain valuable experience in terms of reactor fabrication, electrical hardware and software design and chemical characterization testing. These skills and certifications will be transferable to future work for many of our members.
