Success stories are the elixir of life!
Our Success Story from the MakerSpace is that of LEVITUM
Drones are inspiring the industry. Due to their simplicity, they can be found in a wide variety of applications and in all sorts of sizes, powered mostly by many small motors that get their energy from built-in batteries. However, batteries take up space, contribute some weight, limit range, and take hours (if not days) to fully recharge. A solution to this problem is the goal of the 40+ member team at Levitum.
Levitum is a student initiative at the Technical University of Munich that is developing one of the world’s first long-range hydrogen-powered drones. It is currently building its first full-scale prototype, „Mercurius I“ (pictured). This is designed to carry a 2.5 kg payload over a range of more than 300 km. Powered for the first time by a hydrogen fuel cell, the drone is expected to achieve a maximum flight time of over five hours. This would set a new world record for drones in its size class. Another advantage: Hydrogen can be refueled quickly, so „Mercurie I“ is ready for action again within a few minutes.
But why is hydrogen suitable for this purpose?
Hydrogen has an enormously high energy density, allows the drone to be refueled quickly and at the same time enables emission-free flying. An insane impact for today’s world.
Finally, we asked the team the following questions:
What do you need for the next step?
1. As a team, we predominantly need the following for the next steps: Man and Woman Power of motivated students to move forward even faster.
2. Sponsoring/ Support: As a student initiative we can only finance ourselves through donations/ sponsoring. New prototypes with improvements to predecessors require not only more individual parts due to their increasing complexity, but also a better quality of these individual components. This means that the further we progress with our project, the more difficult it will be to obtain funding.
What would you recommend to students who want to build a prototype in the MakerSpace?
„Just do it!
No matter how helpful lectures are in the formation of theoretical knowledge, there is always a lot that is new when it comes to putting it into practice. „Learning by doing“ describes the process best. In the end, it’s about trying things and ideas out in order to be able to learn from them quickly. There is no shortcut for this. And that’s what tinkering and fiddling are all about. Here, too, the journey is the destination!“
We are happy to have such a highly motivating student team in the Makerspace.
You want to have a look over the team’s shoulder? Have a look here.
You see possibilities to support Levitum? Then contact the team at info@levitum.de.
Or you want to become a MAKER yourself? Then apply for one of our scholarships.
