1. Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center
University of Maryland
6th AHS International Specialists’ Meeting On Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems
Robin Shrestha
Research Assistant
Inderjit Chopra
Alfred Gessow Professor & Director
Moble Benedict
Texas A&M Professor & Research
Scientist
Vikram Hrishikeshavan
Research Scientist
Performance of a Small-Scale Martian
Helicopter Rotor
2. Outline
• Introduction to Martian Air Vehicle
Concepts
• Selection of rotorcraft
• Performance Measurements
• Conclusions
3. The Need for an Aerial Vehicle for
Martian Exploration
x Limited Mobility
x Unable to reach areas of
high priority
x Limited Field of View
Limitations of Traditional
Surface Rovers:
Removes the limitations
associated with rough terrain
Greater speed, range, and field
of view
Closer surveillance (than orbiter)
Advantages of an Aerial
Vehicle:
4. Introduction: Martian Air
Vehicle Concepts
Fixed Wing (ARES)Lighter than Air Rotary (MARV)
x Highest Power Consumption
Take off and Land Vertically
Hover/low speed capability
Precision control to collect
samples and deliver sensors
Low Power Consumption
x Unrealistic Size
x No Control Authority
Good Endurance/ efficient
x High Speed (> 100 m/s)
x Not re-useable
6. Martian Micro Rotorcraft
Can a micro rotorcraft hover
(at least 10 grams payload) on Mars ?
Key Questions
x (>100 m)
Can it perform a useful mission?
What is suitable platform (coaxial, quad etc) ?
7. Martian Micro Rotorcraft
(Feasibility Study for NASA-JPL)
Design drivers
• Air density (Mars) = (1/70) X Air density (Earth)
• Speed of sound (Mars) = 0.72 X Speed of sound (Earth)
• Gravity (Mars) = 0.37 X Gravity (Earth)
Rotor Design: Challenges
• High rotor rotational speeds
• High mach number + Low Reynolds number
• Poor airfoil performance (low rotor efficiency)
• Low endurance
Design Solution
• Scaling up rotor radius (to improve efficiency and reduce
mach number)
• Higher blade chord (increases Reynolds number)
• Optimized blade airfoil, twist and planform
• Is it feasible to hover on Mars?
• If yes, can we have a realistic endurance?
Mass < 1 Kg
15. Best Performing Airfoils From Previous Study
(Best performing out of 30 different airfoils tested)
Wortmann FX 63-100
NACA M10
ARA-D 6%
AH-7-47-6
Selig-1223
Cambered thin plate
Eppler-63
NACA 0012
NACA 6504
All rotors were rapid-prototyped except cambered thin plate
Carbon fiber for stiffness
Low-speed
airfoils
16. Step 1: Mold Blades
Target Circular Camber = 6% - 7%
Height of an Arc Segment:
Height =
Height = 0.1270 in
Camber:
Camber=
Camber = 6.35 %
8 in diameter circular mold
Chord = 2 in
Height
17. Step 1: Mold Blades
(continued)
Rotor diameter = 1.5 ft
(full-scale rotor)
Blade mold machined from 8 in diameter circular plate
3 layers of carbon fiber heated at 350° F
18. Step 2: Mill Blades
1/8 in drill-bit
3 layers molded carbon fiber
sheets
Milling Machine
3D printed cambered
base
Blade planforms drawn on AutoCad
Blades milled out with milling
machine
Precision accurate ± 0.001 inches
32. 30˚ Rectangular Planform
RPM Sweep Experiment Results
𝝆= 0.0167
𝐾𝑔
𝑚3 (MARTIAN Density)
Thrust vs. RPM Power vs. RPM
33. Could 30˚ Rectangular Rotor
Produce Enough Thrust
Power Loading vs. Thrust
PL= 0.0429 N/W at operating T = 0.38 N
34. Li-Po battery energy density
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
0
50
100
150
200
Battery Weight (g)
BatteryElectricalEnergy(W-Hr)
y = 0.1589x
(Variation of battery electrical energy vs. battery mass from commercial manufacturer data)
35. Endurance on Mars with
30˚ Rectangular Rotor
• Total thrust from 2 rotors = 0.76 Newton
• Mechanical power loading = 0.0429 N/W (from experiment)
• Mechanical power required = 17.716 W
• Electrical power required = 18.716/(0.5) = 35.43 W
– Assuming 50% motor efficiency
• Battery mass = 50 grams (33% of empty weight)
• Battery energy = battery mass X 0.1589 = 7.94 W-hr
• Endurance = 13.45 minutes
– Predicted endurance was around 12 – 13 minutes (2 min lost
from extrapolated prediction)
200 gram coaxial helicopter
40. Conclusions
• Baseline Rectangular Planform Rotor (2 in chord) has an
acceptable endurance on Mars
– Predicted Endurance on Mars ~ 13 minutes
– However FM is significantly lower (FM < 0.4) than full scale helicopter or
even a MAV-scale helicopter
• Scalability tests showed that performance significantly
improves with higher Reynolds numbers
– FM eventually reaches 0.62, which is a typical value at MAV-scale
Reynolds numbers for the present rotor design
Future studies will involve parametrically evaluating different rotor design parpmeters, which
include blade airfoil, planform shape, twist, rotor solidity at Martian air density