Overview of Innovative Aircraft Power and Propulsion Systems and Their Applications for Planetary Exploration
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NASA/TM-2003-2124S9 Overview of Innovative Aircraft Power and Propulsion Systems and Their Applications for Planetary Exploration Anthony Colozza Analex Corporation, Brook Park, Ohio Geoffrey Landis and Valerie Lyons Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio July 2003 The NASA STI Program Office ... in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been dedicated to • CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. Collected the advancement of aeronautics and space papers from scientific and technical science. The NASA Scientific and Technical conferences, symposia, seminars, or other Information (STI) Program Office plays a key part meetings sponsored or cosponsored by in helping NASA maintain this important role. NASA. The NASA STI Program Office is operated by • SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, Langley Research Center, the Lead Center for technical, or historical information from NASA's scientific and technical information. 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NASA Access Help Desk NASA Center for AeroSpace Information 7121 Standard Drive Hanover, MD 21076 NASA/TM-2003-2124S9 Overview of Innovative Aircraft Power and Propulsion Systems and Their Applications for Planetary Exploration Anthony Colozza Analex Corporation, Brook Park, Ohio Geoffrey Landis and Valerie Lyons Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio Prepared for the International Air and Space Symposium and Exposition cosponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Dayton, Ohio, July 14-17, 2003 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center July 2003 Acknowledgments Tony Colozza's work was supported by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC), under a grant with the Ohio Aerospace Institute and by the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center. Available from NASA Center for Aerospace Information National Technical Information Service 7121 Standard Drive 5285 Port Royal Road Hanover, MD 21076 Springfield, VA 22100 Available electronically at http: //gltrs.grc.nasa.gov OVERVIEW OF INNOVATIVE AIRCRAFT POWER AND PROPULSION SYSTEMS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION Anthony Colozza Analex Corporation Brook Park, Ohio 44142 Phone: 216-433-5293 E-mail: [email protected] Geoffrey Landis and Valerie Lyons National Aeronautics and Space Administration Glenn Research Center Cleveland, Ohio 44135 E-mail: geoffrey.landis@,nasa.gov, V aJ erie. J.L [email protected] ABSTRACT Pathfinder/Sojourner mission offered a new opportunity Planetary exploration may be enhanced by the use in that it was the first time that an autonomous mobile of aircraft for mobility. This paper reviews the platform could be used for exploration. This allowed development of aircraft for planetary exploration scientists the freedom to explore the surrounding missions at NASA and reviews the power and terrain, maneuver to interesting sites, and perform an propulsion options for planetary aircraft. Several anaJysis of soil and rock composition over a broader advanced concepts for aircraft exploration, including area. In short, the scientific community has many more the use of in situ resources, the possibility of a flexible options. However, the surface rover is limited by the all-solid-state aircraft, the use of entomopters on Mars, terrain it is traversing: large rocks and canyons are and the possibility of aero stat exploration of Titan, are obstacles that are difficult for a surface rover to presented. overcome. Airborne platforms can achieve science objectives that are difficult to achieve from orbit or from surface INTRODUCTION rovers. They can cover much larger distances in a single Many technologies currently being developed for mission than a rover and are not limited by the terrain, unpiloted atmospheric vehicles (UAVs) and high much more easily providing imaging of very rocky or aJtitude aircraft on Earth will be useful in the next steep terrain. Airborne platforms can return images of a century for exploring other planets and moons that have magnitude higher resolution than state-of-the-art enough atmosphere to support flying vehicles. This orbiting spacecraft. Near infrared spectrometry, which paper gives an overview of some concepts for planetary is crucial to analyzing mineralogy on the planet, and exploration using advanced "rovers" that can fl y and high-spatial-resolution magnetometry, which may cover much greater territory than the current ground provide clues as to the origin of high-crustal magnetism vehicles. seen from orbit, require moving platforms. The Although many planets and moons within our solar resolution and sensitivity of these instruments is further system have atmospheres capable of supporting winged increased by being close to the surface. Finally, flight the majority of interest and analysis of the atmospheric sampling can be accomplished over a far greater space, allowing scientists to study variations possibility of flight on other planets has been focused on flight Mars. over a broad area. Mars has been a target of scientific exploration for more than 25 years. Most of this exploration has taken HISTORY OF PLANETARY AIRCRAFT place using orbiting spacecraft or landers. Orbiters offer CONCEPTUAL DESIGN the ability to image large areas over an extended period The notion of flight on Mars has been a subject of of time but are limited in their resolution. Landers can NASA contemplation since Werner von Braun handle surface and atmospheric sampling, but are conceived a rocket plane as a means of Martian limited to the immediate landing site. Mobility is the exploration in 1953 . In the 1950s, Mars flight was key to expanding the scientific knowledge of Mars. The purely fancy, but in the 1970s, it was revisited more NASAfTM-2003-212459 1 seriously, being spurred on by the successes of the National Labs conceived a high-speed aerospaceplane Viking Program. named AEROLUS. Unlike the earlier attempts to make One of the most studied airborne platforms for a slow-speed aircraft that would be deployed from an Mars is the airplane, with initial concepts dating back to aeroshell after touchdown on the Martian surface, the late 1970s. Flying an airplane on Mars represents a AEROLUS would make a direct atmospheric entry and significant challenge, mainly because of the constraints then fly through the Martian atmosphere at hypersonic posed by the Mars environment. The lift on a wing is speeds. proportional to the atmospheric density, velocity, and Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, a number wing area. The Mars atmospheric density is extremely of studies were conducted to examine various low, approximately 1170 that at the Earth's surface. In approaches to flight on Mars. These studies were order to compensate for this, the wing area and/or the conducted by NASA and various universities. An velocity must be increased to generate sufficient lift. example of some of this work was the long-endurance Wing area, however, is limited by packing, volume, and solar-powered Mars aircraft studied by NASA Glenn deployment constraints. Therefore, in order for flight to (ref. 2). An artist's concept of this airplane is shown in be feasible on Mars, the plane must travel at higher figure 2. As a technology demonstration for this project, velocities to compensate for the lack of density and the a small model was successfully built and tested to fly in constrained wing area. Furthermore, the speed of sound the Earth' s atmosphere using only power produced by on Mars is approximately 20 percent less than on Earth. high-efficiency GaAs solar cells (refs. 3 to 5), as shown Both of these factors combine to put the plane in a low in figure 3. Reynolds number,