MarsFlyer

Although airplanes designed to fly in the Martian atmosphere have very unique requirements, the design challenges are similar to those encountered when designing high-altitude terrestrial aircraft. These similarities made Aurora a natural choice to design and develop an aircraft for a Martian mission.

Jason, Aurora's first Mars airplane concept, was a long-range, electric powered vehicle with limited payload capacity. In 1998, Aurora flew a 2/3 scale prototype at low altitude and successfully demonstrated the ability of the aircraft to separate from an aeroshell, unfold itself and attain controlled flight.

MarsFlyer™ was Aurora's second-generation Mars airplane concept designed for NASA's 1999 Mars Airplane Package RFP. It was a much smaller airplane with very short flight duration. The requirements imposed by an aeroshell less than three feet in diameter led to an innovative configuration and folding scheme for the aircraft's wings and tail configuration. MarsFlyer™ was powered by a reliable and compact rocket propulsion system. In 1999, a rocket-powered prototype flew at low altitude, demonstrating the validity of the rocket concept. Later, many of MarsFlyer's™ key features were integrated into Aurora's latest Martian airplane design, which was the basis of NASA Langley's 2003 Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES) proposal.

The ARES airplane is powered by a bi-propellant liquid fuel rocket. In addition to the science instruments payload of a magnetometer, mass spectrometer, point spectrometer, and high resolution camera, ARES will carry a tail-mounted video camera and the flight sensors required for control and navigation.

HADDs

Aurora built two High Altitude Deployment Demonstrators (HADD) to perform risk reduction activities for a Mars flight. The first air vehicle, HADD1, is a half scale prototype sharing many of the same aerodynamic characteristics of the ARES aircraft. HADD1 successfully flew at an altitude of more than 100,000 feet and was the first aircraft to demonstrate successful unfolding and pullout maneuvers in Mars-like atmospheric conditions.

The second demonstrator, called HADD2, is a full-scale prototype of Aurora's latest Mars aircraft. HADD2 uses a flight control system, which embeds all control and navigation sensors into a single package.

Aurora plans to flight test the HADD2. Much like the HADD1, HADD2 will be dropped from a high-altitude balloon above 100,000 feet. The aircraft will then separate from its aeroshell, unfold and enter stable flight. For the test, the HADD2 will be equipped with a comprehensive data acquisition system which will enable a detailed evaluation of the vehicle and critical systems as well as with multiple videos recording the parachute, tail, and wing deployment.

These risk reduction activities provide answers to critical questions and are important steps in moving Aurora’s MarsFlyerTM toward the first flight of an airplane on another planet.