No Age Limit for Concept Innovation

82-year-old Limerick Mother Inspires US Patent that could Boost Successful Space Missions

An 82-year-old mother from Limerick has inspired a US patent for an invention that could be used to help space missions succeed in the future.

Her son, Professor Mike Hinchey, director at the Irish Software Research Centre, Lero,  overheard his Mum on the phone describing a project he was working on. "She said that I was researching a system whereby a drone could chase after another one and fix it. I was working on no such thing but then I thought to myself, ‘Hey, that's not such a bad idea'."

So consquently, with fellow Lero researcher, Emil Vassev and Artificial Intelligence expert Roy Sterrit of University of Ulster, Prof. Hinchey led the research concept to space exploration vehicles that travel in swarms. Elements of those that fail can be used to support the rest of the fleet.

Prof. Hinchey, who also acts as consultant to NASA explained; "The system is not unlike the behaviour of bees who sacrifice themselves for the sake of the colony. Swarm based missions may be the wave of the future, whereby space exploration is undertaken not by one large spacecraft but by swarming formations of much smaller, cheaper ones. Future space probes that operate in cooperative swarms must self-sacrifice if they begin to fail and risk damaging their neighbours."

However, in addition the patent "Power based provision on self-sacrificing craft" also charts how this can also involve donating a resource or asset to another part of the system, even if the donating component is working perfectly but where the donation enables a more important task or mission to be attained.

Outlining how the concept could be used, Professor Hinchey said, "Refuelling of aircraft in the air is commonplace in military applications, but is limited to fuel rather than recharging and involves a specialised component carrying fuel solely for this purpose. Our patent however, relates to parts of an autonomic system, which donate a power provision such as battery, fuel, solar panel, or the like to another component to ensure the continued operation of the receiving module, even at the cost of self-sacrifice."

Now his mother, Delia Hinchey, is listed in the US as a co-author of the patent alongside the research team. She said; "It's all a bit beyond me but I'm delighted I sparked something which might be of value to space exploration in the future."

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