Hover Performance Experimental Setups for a Miniature Mars Rotorcraft: Design and Preliminary Experiments

This paper presents design of hover performance setups and preliminary experiments to validate the possibility of a miniature Mars rotorcraft's flying in Martian atmosphere. Conceptual design of the miniature Mars rotorcraft named MarsBird-I is proposed in this paper. The hover performance setups including Martian Atmosphere Simulator (MAS) and hover test stand are developed. The function of MAS is simulating the atmosphere pressure of Mars, and hover test stand is capable of measuring the lift generated by rotors. By balancing the gravity of rotor system, the effect of rotor system's gravity to the measuring resolution of lift can be as minute as possible. Preliminary hover test experiments are carried out by using a rotor with diameter of 500 mm. The rotor, the airfoil of which is selected based on numerical simulation, possesses capability of generating approximately 120 gf lift at the speed of 6000 r/min. The results indicate that it is possible for a miniature coaxial Mars rotorcraft with weight of 200 g to hover in the Martian atmosphere.