Aéro

Studio Theodore Spyropoulos

Tutors Apostolos Despotidis, Octavian Mihai Gheorghiu, Hanjun Kim

Team Mattia Badiani, Ipek Duzova, Natalie Jablonski, Eugenio Tenaglia

In a world where water scarcity is a dangerously accelerating threat, Aéro aims to find a solution in the sky, by harvesting the water in the atmosphere. Inspired by the fascinating natural behavior observed in spiders that is deployed as a strategy to fly called ballooning, Aéro investigates ways to take flight using less energy and resources as opposed to the current understanding of flight heavily dependent on fossil fuels. 

To alleviate the challenges posed by water scarcity, water collection practices offer promising potential. These strategies involve capturing, storing, and distributing water for various purposes, which promotes self-sufficiency and resilience, reducing the dependence on overburdened freshwater sources by using an alternative water supply. Most water collection strategies involve the management of existing water resources, such as surface water bodies, groundwater, or rainwater. However, in regions receiving poor precipitation, none of these options are readily available. Improving from the designs of fog catchers in arid regions that receive limited rainfall such as the Atacama Desert, Aéro explores the potential of a new water source – the invisible, yet abundant, resource that spans the globe: the atmosphere. Aéro aims to generate an innovative water infrastructure system that harvests the water in the atmosphere by using atmospheric fog as an essential resource. 

Since Aéro aspires to harvest water from the atmosphere, our prototype has gradually detached from the ground, becoming lighter than air. This aerial approach not only granted us a higher degree of freedom but also enabled navigating various atmospheric levels, thus optimizing our water harvesting capabilities. The potential applications of the project developed into multiple possibilities, including becoming a local, adaptable supplier of collecting and distributing water wherever it is needed.