Using a miniature glider instead of a bulky ballast NASA intends to use a folding plane to survey Mars

The Mars lander uses ballasts before and after entering the outer layer of the atmosphere to complete control of the center of gravity and attitude, but then the ballast will be thrown away. In view of the important role of hundreds of kilograms of ballasts and the difficulty and cost of sending them to Mars, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to switch to a miniature glider instead of a ballast. Folding carbon fiber aircraft, if the test is successful, or will take a Mars aircraft to Mars in 2022.

NASA engineers and staff at the Armstrong Flight Research Center are working on a Panttl-m prototype for aeroplanes that can land on Mars. The Prandtl-m is a small, foldable carbon fiber glider that can be placed in a cube satellite with a wing that is about 60 cm long and weighs only half a kilogram. The Prandtl-m has no engine. After the Cube satellite is ejected from the Mars into the Martian atmosphere, it will be released thousands of feet above the surface of Mars. It will fly for about 10 minutes, about 30 kilometers, and then fall to Mars.

In the 10 minutes of the mission, Prandtl-m can return a lot of valuable data, and the photos taken are higher and the quality is better than the pixels taken from the track. Since the space occupied by the aircraft was originally designed as a ballast, it does not increase costs and risks.

According to the official website of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), NASA has made a test flight version. This slightly larger, non-folding glider, called Prandtl-d, will be tested for flight later this year. Scientists hope that it will be able to fly at a certain altitude. Once successful, the next step will be to see if it can complete the Mars mission in addition to being opened from the folded state in the cube satellite.

The final test task was to launch a sonic rocket at an altitude of 137,000 meters, then release the glider and control its flight for about 5 hours. "If Prandtl-m can complete the final challenge, NASA agrees to carry it on a Mars aircraft, just say it is just around the corner," said Al-Bouls, Printl-m project director, Armstrong Flight Center. "I hope this plan can be It became a reality between 2022 and 2024."

Hand Installation Tool

Hand Installation Tool,High Quality Hand Installation Tool,Hand Installation Tool Details, CN

Xinxiang Donghai Industry Co., Ltd. , https://www.thaicoil.com