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    • Design of Mars Canyon Flyer

    Paper number

    IAC-05-A3.P.12

    Author

    Mr. Wies Hageraats, Technical University of Delft (TUDelft), The Netherlands

    Coauthor

    Mr. Arjen de Jong, Technical University of Delft (TUDelft), The Netherlands

    Coauthor

    Mr. Robin Raus, Technical University of Delft (TUDelft), The Netherlands

    Year

    2005

    Abstract

    In 2003 a group of 10 students participated in the design process of a Mars flyer at the University of Technology in Delft (Netherlands). Since then several optimizations have been made to optimize the original design.During this period of time the project has attracted the attention of lot of people; the ESA has monitored the progress of this project from the beginning and even some curiosity was shown from EADS.Moreover, recently our team had been invited by the ESA to discuss the initiation of a full scaled project and to open the competition with the NASA that has started a similar project.We think that the realization of a Mars flyer is something that will happen in the near future and therefore we think this subject would be a valuable contribution to the astronautical congress.

    W.A. Hageraats

    For the past centuries, people have dreamed about exploring the mysterious red planet. The past decades these dreams came true with numerous missions to Mars. The only problem was that these missions did not give enough close up information to completely understand the mysterious planet. With the development of an airplane for Mars exploration, the Mars Airborne Canyon Explorer (MACE), a large step towards complete understanding of Mars is taken.
    The mission statement of the MACE is: “To demonstrate an innovative and reliable method for scientific investigation of the Valles Marineris canyon on Mars, provide a better insight in the geology and history of the planet and gather information satellites, landers and rovers cannot.
    During the first part of the design, the concept design, three different concepts for the MACE design were generated. The three different designs were: an inflatable wing aircraft, a direct transmission flying wing and a telescopic jet engine flyer. After the mid-term review it was decided to use a combination of all three conceptual designs as the final concept. This resulted in a twin propeller, partly inflatable, direct data-transmission aircraft.
    The MACE will, folded in an aeroshell connected to an orbiter, travel to Mars. When Mars is reached the aeroshell will separate from the orbiter followed by the de-orbiting and entry phases of the aeroshell. When the entry phase is finished a parachute is deployed from the aeroshell to slow it down. When aeroshell is decelerated and the right altitude is reached the MACE will leave the aeroshell. This is where the MACE starts flying. A separate parafoil is released and during the parafoil-flight the rigid parts of the wings will be unfolded and the outer parts of the wing will be inflated in a few seconds. The MACE starts its propellers for the autonomous flight towards a predefined route through the Valles Marineris. For six hours it will make measurements and send the obtained data to the Mars-stationary orbiter, which has carried the MACE to Mars. This Mars orbiter will then send the data back to Earth.
    In order to investigate the geology and composition of the canyon a high-resolution camera linked with a radar altimeter and a spectrometer will be used. With these instruments it is possible to determine whether there is water on Mars by identifying water-related minerals and by investigating the structure of the rocks. For a better insight in the history of Mars the weak magnetic field will also be investigated with a magnetometer placed in a wingtip. The fourth instrument used will be a low-resolution camera to give a broader view of the canyon. In order to transmit the collected data a phased array antenna will be used. All the data will be send directly to the orbiting satellite, which has a Mars stationary orbit to ensure a constant connection with the MACE.
    By far the largest power consumer will be the propulsion system, which consists out of two push propellers. These push propellers will be driven by two separate electric engines and the blades will consist of a carbon epoxy skin and a core of foam. The power is generated by lithium/hydrogen peroxide fuel cells, in which the hydrogen peroxide will react with the lithium and create energy, water and a waste product.
    The wing will be designed for low Reynolds numbers because of the low density (1/70 of Earth). The wing will have a rigid inner part and inflatable outer parts. Because of the limited space available in the aeroshell the inflatable structure is introduced and the rigid section has to be folded. The rigid part will be a conventional design with a torsion box, stiffeners and a skin made out of composite material. The inflatable part will be tapered and have inflatable spars from the wingtip to the wing-root. High-pressure nitrogen will be used to inflate the wings. The aero-elasticity of the wing is investigated and it is concluded that the flutter speed is much higher than the cruise speed so it will not pose any problems.
    The MACE will be controlled using an autonomous controller. The empennage consists of a conventional v-tail, which is able to control the pitch, yaw and is some lesser extent the roll. So an aileron is introduced in the rigid inner-wing to make the plane fully controllable. For navigation an inertial measurement unit, a sun sensor, air data sensors and a terrain mapping system using a radar altimeter will be used. These instruments will determine the position of the aircraft accurately enough to guide the plane in a stable manner through the canyon and to be able to couple the instrument data to an exact location.
    Although more research is required, the MACE will be an innovative and reliable design that will be able to obtain high-resolution data that cannot be obtained by satellites, landers or rovers.

    Letter of Recommendation

    Subject: Recommendation

    To Whom It May Concern,

    It is my great pleasure to write this support letter for W. Hageraats, A.T. de Jong, and R. Raus to submit a technical paper to the 56th IAF congress which will be held in Fukuoka, Japan, 17-21 October, 2005.
    I have been the principal supervisor for the B.Sc thesis of these three students. This thesis project concerned the complete design of an airplane for Mars surface explorations. The project has been extremely challenging due to the environment of the Mars and the way of transporting the airplane to the Mars. Mars airplanes have been considered to be the best alternative to Mars rovers and Mars satellites, therefore, ESA (the European Space Agency) now has plans to continue this project. The paper stated is addressing the complete design process of this Mars airplane.

    I would strongly like to recommend this paper to the congress and hopefully our students will have the opportunity to present their paper at the congress.

    Yours sincerely,

    Dr. Q. P. Chu
    Associate Professor & Project Leader of Spacecraft Guidance, Navigation and Control.
    Division of Control and Simulation, TUDelft

    P.O. Box 5058, Kluyverweg 1, 2600 GB Delft, The Netherlands. Telephone +31 15 278 2094. Fax +31152786480, Internet: http://www.lr.tudelft.nl, email: Q.P.Chu@lr.tudelft.nl, tel:+31 15 278 3586

    Abstract document

    IAC-05-A3.P.12.pdf

    Manuscript document

    IAC-05-A3.P.12.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

    To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.