Aerodynamic Performance of Advanced Ingenuity and Dragonfly Drones for Future Space Missions to Mars and Titan

Abstract

The future of space missions to habitable Mars and Saturnian moon; Titan, is very promising to mankind as far as sending coaxial rotorcrafts or dual-quadcopter landers, to fly in their atmospheric extremes, are concerned. The aerodynamic performance of Martian Ingenuity is compared to that on Titan and Earth. Advanced design features of Ingenuity are further explored and analyzed that resulted in added benefits of increased hover time, range with a payload of about 28% of its gross weight. The enhanced performance of the advanced design would move its role from a helicopter demonstrator to a helicopter assistant of a landed rover with exploration and excavation tasks to perform in dune caves and volcano craters. Further, the performance of a dual-quadcopter lander; Titanean Dragonfly, is explored and compared to that on Earth. The relatively denser atmosphere and lower gravitational acceleration offer favorable flying conditions for rotorcrafts that can save on power consumption if the equipment is further fortified against the extremely cold temperature on Titan