Design of an electric tilt-wing Martian aircraft

Abstract

Aerial vehicles increase the range and versatility of resources that can be researched on exterritorial bodies that possess an atmosphere. These vehicles provide significant advantages over traditional landers and rovers in their ability to travel through complicated terrain and obstacles as well as their ability to obtain gas samples at different altitudes. Currently, there has already been an aircraft present on Mars. Ingenuity, the Martian helicopter deployed by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of the Mars 2020 mission, has become the first human aircraft to make a powered extraterrestrial flight and is still conducting flying experiments to date. This research aims to explore the possibilities of designs for future aircraft used for Mars explorations as well as technologies that can improve on the existing designs and concepts. This research also proposes possible solutions to the challenges posed by the Martian environment such as the low atmospheric density and terrain restrictions for take-off by utilising existing technology developed for eVTOL such as tilt-wing design to gain the ability to take-off and land vertically. Other aspects such as the selection and accommodation of the spacecraft to launch vehicles have also been covered in the scope of this research.