Stellar Barrhead student is man on a mission

It inspired a deep fascination with aerospace – and beyond – for the former Barrhead High pupil.

Now 22-year-old Drew is leading a team of fellow researchers as they work to make Europe ready to journey to the Moon.

The group at the University of Strathclyde is one of many teams around the Continent and one from the US putting together innovative systems to power a lunar visit and research.

“I have always been interested in space and aerospace,” Drew told the Barrhead News. “Over the years, space was always the dream.

“As I have gone through university, I have been able to get closer to what I want to do in my career.

“I would always read books on space, science, history and geography.

“It’s the drive to continue forward – onward and upward – that keeps me going. For millennia, we have been stuck here on Earth. I prefer to look up instead of down.

“Space is just so broad and massive. There are so many opportunities. When my sister Jenna was born, nobody knew if there were any exoplanets. Now we’ve found thousands of them.”

Drew and his university colleagues are exploring new technologies

Drew said the European Space Agency (ESA) has wanted to go to the Moon for some time and is now aiming to make that a reality in the later part of this decade.

Working with the Swiss Space Centre, they challenged students to come up with concepts that could work and test designs and models on Earth to see what could be replicated in space – a plan dubbed IGLUNA 2020.

Former Cross Arthurlie Primary pupil Drew is designing the system-level view of getting power to modules such as habitation, while his colleagues on PowerHab develop the sub-systems.

If based in space or on the Moon, each part would have to be able to keep working if something else crashed.

The other teams have worked with PowerHab to explain what their power needs are to ensure Strathclyde comes up with a system that all fits together.

As Drew and his colleagues are developing the power systems, all others in Europe need to know what their theoretical output would be.

In July, there will be a field campaign in the Swiss Alps, with dozens of researchers out testing what they’ve designed, mimicking a manned lunar mission.

But there is also potentially a “massive” applicability to Earth, such as space-based solar power they are working on this year.

A hydrogen fuel cell is powered by water and the only by-product is water

The right technology could capture the sun’s power above the planet and then beam it down by microwave.

That method is being tested already and Drew and his colleagues will soon demonstrate a transfer of 1/10th of a watt.

A lunar system would have a transfer of power of 90 to 100gigawatts.

One plan in their 2020 project is a hydrogen fuel cell – effectively a battery that runs on hydrogen and oxygen, where the by-product is H2O.

Some of the electricity can be used to split the H2O back into hydrogen and oxygen and then back into the system.

This could be a potentially clean and closed loop.

“I would like to think of the solar power transfer on the Moon but also think of it solving solutions here on Earth,” said Drew. “At the moment, electric vehicles are taking the lead but there are a lot of people who think hydro vehicles are the solution, particularly for HGVs and longer distances.”

Strathclyde’s lunar power project logo

Drew will graduate in the summer with a Masters in Aero-Mechanical Engineering before heading out into the job market, where Strathclyde students are in high demand, as it is one of the leading centres for engineering, design and space efforts.

Along with his team, Drew is working to crowdfund so they can get their designs and the engineers to Switzerland in the summer.

And he hopes to eventually visit schools to get the next generation of youngsters interested in space.

Drew is encouraging pupils to contact the university or different companies they’re interested in, so they can find out more.

“It’s an outreach strategy of ours to interest the academic community but also inspire younger pupils,” he said.

“For someone who came from Barrhead High to be working on an international project is a dream.

“I would hope to continue that and show other people that they are able to do it too.

“Just dive into it.”

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