Author Information

Louis SpierFollow

Is this project an undergraduate, graduate, or faculty project?

Undergraduate

individual

What campus are you from?

Daytona Beach

Authors' Class Standing

Senior

Lead Presenter's Name

Louis Spier

Faculty Mentor Name

Snorri Gudmundsson

Abstract

To support possible future human presence on Mars where bases are likely to be spread apart, an aerial vehicle could be used to transport crew and cargo between them. Designing such a vehicle is very challenging because of the low atmospheric density on Mars compared to Earth. A conventional fixed-wing airplane concept intended for Mars was presented by a team of aircraft designers in 2020 and was shown to be feasible. However, that study did not take into consideration how to transport a large airplane to Mars. This study evaluated an alternative concept involving a powered parachute vehicle weighing less than a third of the fixed-wing airplane and being easier to transport to Mars by spacecraft. Aerodynamic and performance analysis was done by hand calculations and a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based aircraft design software to achieve a conceptual design for a powered parachute vehicle that could operate on Mars. This study revealed that such a concept is possible, but a future study might determine a better configuration than the one presented here.

Did this research project receive funding support from the Office of Undergraduate Research.

Yes, SURF

Share

COinS
 

Aerial Atmospheric Vehicle for Mars

To support possible future human presence on Mars where bases are likely to be spread apart, an aerial vehicle could be used to transport crew and cargo between them. Designing such a vehicle is very challenging because of the low atmospheric density on Mars compared to Earth. A conventional fixed-wing airplane concept intended for Mars was presented by a team of aircraft designers in 2020 and was shown to be feasible. However, that study did not take into consideration how to transport a large airplane to Mars. This study evaluated an alternative concept involving a powered parachute vehicle weighing less than a third of the fixed-wing airplane and being easier to transport to Mars by spacecraft. Aerodynamic and performance analysis was done by hand calculations and a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based aircraft design software to achieve a conceptual design for a powered parachute vehicle that could operate on Mars. This study revealed that such a concept is possible, but a future study might determine a better configuration than the one presented here.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.