A swish brand-new video has actually landed, stimulating how a robotic, 18-propellor, flying automobile might come to Mars one day and start checking out the world from high in its pinky-red sky.
MAGGIE, the Mars Aerial and Ground Intelligent Explorer, was chosen by NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for stage 1 advancement in January. This implies the group behind MAGGIE– coming from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Purdue University and start-up aerospace business CoFlow Jet– will get moneying to more establish the advanced innovation required to perhaps make MAGGIE a truth.
The brand-new animation illustrates MAGGIE’s launch on a rocket that will take it to Mars throughout 8 months. As soon as there, it comes down through the thin Martian environment while restricted within a protective heat guard; its fall is slowed by parachute. The heat guard and parachute are consequently disposed of and a retro, rocket-powered sky crane device, like the ones that provided the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers to Mars, finishes the landing. As soon as MAGGIE has actually been winched to the surface area by the sky crane, its 18 props stir into action with energy produced from photovoltaic panels that line MAGGIE’s big, winged fuselage. Rudders on the wings can direct thrust, enabling vertical remove and landing (VTOL)– there is obviously no landing strips or runaways on Mars!
Related: NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity has actually flown its last flight after suffering rotor damage
The Ingenuity helicopter imaged on Mars on Aug. 2, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
MAGGIE’s prepared abilities are excellent. It would be developed to reach Mach 0.25 on a totally charged battery. In Mars’ vulnerable environment, Mach 1– the speed of noise– is slower than in the world, and has actually been determined to be 879.3 kilometers per hour (546.4 miles per hour) at ground level. Mach 0.25 at MAGGIE’s travelling elevation of 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) is about 210 kph (130 miles per hour). MAGGIE’s time invested in the Martian sky will be restricted by its photovoltaic panels that will just work throughout the day and need time to charge up in the early morning, however MAGGIE’s overall variety throughout a Martian year (687 Earth days) would be 16,048 km (9,972 miles).
It would have the ability to attain this speed thanks, in part, to CoFlow Jet’s trademarked innovation, which includes a series of air compressors developed into the automobile’s wing that suck in percentages of air from the back of the wing, then blow it out at the front of the wing. This system acts to increase lift and minimize drag. MAGGIE’s CoFlow Jets and props would need to work harder on Mars than in the world since of the thinner environment, which is simply 6.25 millibars at surface area level, compared to Earth which has a pressure of 1,013 millibars at sea level. The scenario is made worse in the winter season, when the air pressure stop by 25% since the co2 freezes out onto the polar caps.