Using a Robotic Helicopter to Fuel Interest in and Augment the Human Exploration of the Planet Mars

There are many reasons that a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) flight platform would be desirable for the exploration of Mars. NASA hopes that widespread exploration of the cliffs of sedimentary rocks at the West Chandor Chasma photographed by the Mars Global Surveyor may discover fossilized remains of primitive life. Such a discovery could fuel an overwhelming interest in human exploration of Mars to determine how such life developed. Widespread exploration of cliffs can most easily be accomplished by a VTOL vehicle. Furthermore, a VTOL vehicle could accomplish a successful landing on the rough Martian terrain to refuel for multiple missions. Such a vehicle could greatly enhance human exploration by rapidly collecting remote samples for human analysis or placing probes or equipment far removed from a human base camp. A feasibility study was completed to verify that VTOL flight platforms were possible for flight in the thin Martian atmosphere. The study concluded that sustained flight is possible if a sufficiently large disk area is used to generate the mass flow to produce 73 Newtons of thrust necessary to lift a 20 kilogram helicopter in the reduced gravity environment of Mars. A helicopter design was completed to fit such a helicopter in a Pathfinder-type tetrahedron lander that could be placed in Mars Injection Transfer Orbit utilizing a Delta II launch platform. The helicopter was designed using four rotors much the way Bothezat overcame the problem of a low power loading requirement. The quad-rotor also employs RPM-based thrust and helicopter control for simplicity and weight reduction. The electric motors that turn the rotors are powered by a carbon dioxide fuel cell to facilitate in-situ resource renewal and refuel.