Update - Now a Teams Meeting

Overcoming Aerodynamic Challenges for Future Mars Exploration

with Witold J.F. Koning
NASA Ames Research Center

Abstract: Flying a helicopter on Mars presents unique aerodynamic challenges due to the planet’s low atmospheric density, leading to a low Reynolds number regime and necessitating high tip Mach numbers to generate sufficient rotor thrust.

This presentation explores recent aerodynamic advancements in rotor design for the Martian environment, including unconventional airfoils and coupled airfoil-rotor optimization. Wind tunnel testing and computational studies reveal the limitations of maintaining laminar flow over the airfoil and underscore the need for innovative airfoil design approaches.

The Evolutionary agorithm for Iterative Studies of Aeromechanics (ELISA), developed under the Rotor Optimization for the Advancement of Mars eXploration (ROAMX) project, has been employed to optimize rotor hover performance, demonstrating promising efficiency gains over the Ingenuity helicopter rotor. The findings presented provide valuable insights into advancing Martian rotorcraft capabilities for future Mars exploration missions.