aircraft makes some of the best
platforms for science here on earth from
weather balloons to study the high
atmosphere to aircraft that fly into the
hearts of hurricanes from surveys of
Antarctic ice sheets to drones so it
makes sense to consider missions to any
world in the solar system with an
atmosphere balloons to Venus and
helicopters to Titan the one world
that's been the most seriously
considered for exploration by air is
Mars as we've mentioned time and time
again in the past Mars sucks especially
its atmosphere you can't breathe it you
can't use it to keeping your precious
fluids in ruined spacecraft what's it
good for
it turns out it could be possible to fly
in the thin atmosphere of Mars an
aircraft's lift depends on the
atmospheric density velocity and the
area of the wing since the Martian
atmosphere is less dense
you've got to compensate with either a
faster speed or a much larger wing area
the one thing in an airplanes favor
though is the lower gravity on Mars only
38% of Earth for a faster speed we need
more energy but solar radiation on Mars
is much less than what we can enjoy here
on earth for bigger wing area you've got
to deal with the limits of landing large
complex payloads on Mars which we talked
about in the previous episode needless
to say this will be tough but
surprisingly it's possible space
agencies have been trying to work out a
way to make it happen for years one of
the earliest ideas came from Verner von
Braun the architect of Germany's
rocketry program during World War two as
well as the architect for nasa's human
exploration of the moon in his mars
project concept he proposed that
interplanetary spaceship would be able
to deploy gliders to enter the Martian
atmosphere but then it was discovered
that Mars atmosphere was a fraction of
the density of Earth's and the idea was
discarded in fact I've done a whole
episode on the Mars project so I'll link
to it here once they knew the actual
density of Mars atmosphere NASA began to
seriously consider a
craft for Mars in the 1970s another
challenge is that Mars doesn't have
enough oxygen in its atmosphere to
provide combustion for jet fuel in 1977
NASA's Dryden Research Center proposed a
propeller driven aircraft powered by
hydrazine a common rocket fuel
propellant that has its own oxidizer
they built a prototype based on their
mini sniffer uncrewed aerial vehicles
and did some tests to see if the
technology could work in the 1980s NASA
shifted their plans to a totally new
idea instead of having an aircraft that
would land on the surface of Mars and
take off again they considered an
aircraft that would enter the atmosphere
directly and start flying at hypersonic
speeds in 1996 NASA started exploring
the airplane for Mars exploration or aim
this would use a propeller and a large
wingspan sail plane in 1998 they refined
their idea to build a large folding
glider called Kittyhawk which would
unfold at an altitude of 12,000 meters
above the surface of Mars and then glide
until it crashed in 2002 nasa's langley
proposed a Mars aircraft called Ares or
the aerial regional scale environmental
survey ares would have been sent to mars
in an aeroshell similar to the Viking
landers once it got into the thick part
of its atmosphere the aircraft would
deploy a parachute unfold its wings and
then fire its liquid propulsion engine
it would then be able to fly through the
Martian atmosphere for about 500
kilometres sciencing as hard as it could
before crashing onto the surface of Mars
all that expense for a few minutes of
flight in order to maintain flight and
avoid stalling aircraft need to fly at
least 350 km/h on Mars
this means they pass over the landscape
too quickly to collect a lot of signs
too fast not enough science next idea
was to build an aircraft with a very
large wing that could actually fly
around in the thin Martian atmosphere
for longer but not much longer in 2015
scientists flew a test glider concept
called the preliminary research
aerodynamic design to land on Mars or
parental em which also happens to be the
name of the German engineer ludwig
prandtl who developed a lot of the
mathematics for flight see how these
acronyms work the Prandtl M is one big
wing with no tail designed to create the
minimum amount of drag and maximize
flight time imagine an albatross made of
carbon fiber and aluminum the aircraft
would be small enough to fit within a
CubeSat sent to Mars when the spacecraft
arrived at Mars and it decelerated
through the atmosphere it would deploy
the aircraft it would use its low drag
to glide through the atmosphere for
about 10 minutes traversing 32
kilometers of distance before crashing
onto the surface of Mars that's not much
but it would be a relatively inexpensive
way to scout out a potential landing
ellipse for a future mission sent to a
hazardous region of Mars several
versions were tested out but in the end
a very different aircraft was chosen to
fly on Mars which we'll get to shortly
next idea flapping wings on Mars no I'm
not kidding Mars aircraft could flap
their wings like an insect a fancier
name for a flapping wing aircraft is an
end to monitor just like insects they
don't generate lift in the same way that
a bird's wings work instead insects keep
themselves aloft by forming and then
shedding vortices on their wings as part
of a NASA Institute for advanced
concepts grant in 2002 researcher
Anthony Klose proposed an intimate with
a 1 meter wingspan could generate a
similar lift than an insect on Earth
might enjoy the aircraft wouldn't need
to fly quickly it would just need to
flap its wings really quickly this would
be incredibly power intensive the course
burning through its hydrazine fuel
quickly if it was battery-powered
however an intro Moktar could deploy
from a rover flap around to do some
scouting and then land again to recharge
its batteries I love this idea and I
hope that someone continues to develop
it what about balloons
of course NASA's considered balloons
balloons work in the Earth's atmosphere
because the gases are less dense than
air fill a balloon with hydrogen helium
or hot air and it'll gain altitude as
long as the payload
is light enough it's a little more
tricky on Mars of course since its
atmosphere is so thin
a Martian balloon mission could be
equipped with a tank of helium which
inflates as soon as the spacecraft
arrives at Mars then it would jettison
its heavy tanks and float around the
Martian atmosphere at a constant
altitude this idea was proposed by
Robert Zubrin and colleagues back in
1993 as the Mars aerial platform this
discovery class mission would fly at an
altitude of seven kilometres above the
surface of Mars for hundreds or even
thousands of days imaging the surface at
a greater resolution than had ever been
seen before another idea would be a hot
air balloon inflated with locally
sourced Martian carbon dioxide
atmosphere the Sun would heat up the gas
trapped inside the balloon giving it
lift compared to the surrounding
atmosphere but it would only be able to
operate during the day heating up in the
Sun going airborne for a few hours then
descending during the Martian night to
rest on the surface this would provide a
challenge of snagging its lines each
time it comes down to rest it would only
be a matter of time before it got
tangled up on rocky outcrop I've got
some good news for you NASA is actually
committed to an actual flying mission to
Mars and will actually get to that in a
second but first I'd like to thank Kevin
Ross Manning Charles Boles
Dustin Roth DJ Cash Simon Poole and the
rest of our 812 patrons for their
generous support if you love what we're
doing you want to get in on the action
head over to patreon.com/scishow is
developing their plans for the Mars 2020
Rover they wanted to include some kind
of flying vehicle with the mission in
2017 NASA Langley developed the concept
of the Mars flyer an autonomous winged
drone that would be tucked in beside the
rover as a travel to Mars once on the
surface 2020 would use its robotic arm
to gently place the aircraft on the
surface from there it would take off
vertically and then transition to
horizontal flight once it was going fast
enough the aircraft would be
maneuverable enough to explore cliff
sides and lavitus autonomously mapping
the surroundings and relaying them back
to the rover and then once it ran out of
battery power it returns to the launch
pad for
charge in 2018 NASA announced that they
would be including a tiny autonomous
vehicle with the Mars 2020 Rover
launching in July of that year known as
the Mars helicopter this tiny vehicle is
about the size of a softball and weighs
only 1.8 kilograms it has two
counter-rotating blades that spin at
3,000 times a minute generating enough
lift in the thin Martian atmosphere that
it can actually fly around when the Mars
2020 Rover arrives at the Red Planet it
will be carrying the Mars helicopter on
board the rover will search its
surroundings for a good launch site
gently place the helicopter on the
ground and then move away to a safe
distance the helicopter will charge up
its batteries with onboard solar panels
and then begin a series of fully
autonomous test flights going longer and
longer distances over the course of 30
days on the first flight for example it
will fly to an altitude of three meters
and hover for about 30 seconds because
it takes many minutes to communicate
with Mars the helicopter will need to
make its own decisions avoiding terrain
and choosing a safe landing site this is
just a test to demonstrate if a robotic
helicopter like this makes sense future
Mars missions could include one or
several of these flying Scouts which
would help them identify important
features on the landscape from above
imagine future astronauts exploring the
surface of Mars with a cloud of tiny
drones helping them Scout the landscape
awesome getting a vehicle that could fly
in the thin atmosphere of Mars is going
to be tough every idea has compromises
but if engineers can crack it there's
nothing more effective than getting a
bird's-eye view of the landscape ahead I
wouldn't be surprised to see more flying
vehicles joining future Landers and
Rovers sent to Mars what do you think
let me know your thoughts in the
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