“The Prandtl-m could overfly some of the proposed
landing sites for a future astronaut mission and send back to Earth very
detailed high-resolution photographic map images that could tell scientists
about the suitability of those landing sites”
NASA scientist
and Prandtl-m program manager Al Bowers commenting on the NASA’s Armstrong
Flight Research Center Prandtl-m Drone
The first aircraft on Mars might actually be a
stowaway scout drone that hitched a ride and was sprung from a cubesat.
That's the notion being put forward by NASA’s
Armstrong Flight Research Center, who are developing the Prandtl-m Drone to
glide over the surface of Mars by the 2020's as reported in the article “NASA
reveals a boomerang-like plane designed to fly on Mars”, published June 30,
2015 by John Camdir, Digitaltrends.
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The idea is that a drone could be sent to Mars to
scout out possible landing sites for humans to land and start a Mars
Colony. It would be folded up inside of
a cubesat along with the next Rover mission sent to Mars from 2022 to 2024 and
deployed in the upper atmosphere as explained in the article “This
could be the first airplane on Mars”, published June 30, 2015 by Amanda
Kooser, CNET News.
NASA is intent on sending a manned mission to Mars.
So erring on the side of safety, they've decided to get a lay of the land as
unveiled in their plans for the Mars
Prandtl-m Drone. In so doing, if this succeeds, they’ll become the first
aeroplane or Drone on Mars!
So is this Drone up to the Task? Or will this drone
get blown away in the wind?
NASA’s
Armstrong Flight Research Center Prandtl-m Drone – Surveying the Red Planet for
Human Colony
The Prandtl-m Drone designed by NASA’s Armstrong
Flight Research Center is very small and compact, but advanced in design.
The team that designed the Prandtl-m Drone was
actually a group of Aerospace Engineers who were interns at NASA between 2012
and 2013. It was originally made as a Radio-controlled Glider as explained in
the article “This
could be the first airplane on Mars”, published June 30, 2015 by Amanda
Kooser, CNET News.
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Prandtl-m Drone, which had a fuselage design similar
to a flying wing, has a wingspan of 60.96 cm (24 in) and at 1.18 Kg (2.6 Lb),
it is no heavier than a Laptop. The drone is possibly gonna be jam-packed with
cameras, sensors such as LIDAR, Radar, Sonar, Barometer, gyroscope, GPS and
even an electronic heliostat.
Being as Battery power won't allow the drone to fly
for long, as it’s planed for a 32.19 km (20 mi) flight over the red planet. Prandtl-m
Drone will probably use a Semi-Liquid Battery like those developed by University
of Texas at Austin as described in my blog article entitled “University
of Texas at Austin Semi-Liquid Battery – Liquid Gel Batteries in Smartphones
means Battery life measured in years and not hours”.
This Battery will probably be trickle-charged using
mini-solar panels located on the back on the wings to extend the flight time.
32.19 km (20 mi) is a little too short a jog for a planet that’s almost as big
as the Earth; circumnavigation of the planet is possible wit solar panels and
flying at higher heights.
Prandtl-m
Drone Stratospheric and Mesospheric Tests – Two Drones possible as the More the
Merrier
This might seem a bit much to pack, but on Mars,
with has 4/10th the gravity of Earth, it'll make the Drone
featherweight. However, the atmosphere is very thin, equivalent to what we'd
experience at 100,000 ft or 18.94 miles (30.48 km), basically the upper
Stratosphere.
As part of testing of the Prandtl-m Drone, NASA is
conducting High-altitude tests at that height to simulate flying in a Martian
atmosphere. The plan is to attach the Prandtl-m Drone to a weather balloon and
send it up to that height to see how the airframe holds up to the thin
atmosphere and high-velocity winds, typical of a day on Mars.
Future tests will involve going even higher to
450,000 ft or 85.23 mi (137.16 km), which is basically in the middle of the
Mesosphere. This suggests the possibility that NASA might send not one but two
(2) Prandtl-m Drone; one to scout closer to the ground and another to do the
work that the Mars Communications Orbiter would normally do of mapping the
Planet surface.
This is all good, as at least when other companies
such as Swedish based Mars One plans to do their reality-show on Mars as
explained in my blog
article entitled “@MIT
Study on Mars One - Why Staying Alive for 68 Days Eating Vegetables means
Oxygen has a License to Kill”, they'll have the benefit of a hyper-detailed
3D map along with other up-to-date measurements which NASA can license to them
for planning their missions.
In so doing, they'd have both telemetry data not
only to locate suitable landing sites but also a more complete map of Mars from
a bird's eye view. The year 2024 can't come quick enough to see NASA’s
Armstrong Flight Research Center become the first to fly not one but two (2) Prandtl-m
Drone on the Red Planet.
Here’s the link:
NASA Twitter Feed:
@NASA
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