The Chopper Next-Generation Mars Rotorcraft: Scaling Ingenuity by a Factor 20
The success of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars has laid the groundwork for rotorcraft becoming a key part of future Mars exploration infrastructure. For this vision to be fully realized it is necessary to scale up Mars rotorcraft technology to a size class where science payloads of multiple kilograms can be carried over significant distances. This paper describes the development of a large-scale Mars rotorcraft concept that can support future standalone missions. It is shown how the challenging flight environment on Mars closes off certain branches of the design space but allows the design of a vehicle with 3–10 kg payload capacity and 3 km daily range.
Authors
- D. Bugby
- Adam V. Duran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4094-9514)
- Laura Jones-Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3675-5419)
- Jaakko T. Karras
- Wayne Johnson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3160-6796)
- Gianmarco Sahragard-Monfared (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6527-7380)
- Joshua P. Bowman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7705-3069)
- Fernando Mier-Hicks
- Brandon Metz
- Travis Brown (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4846-8468)
- Håvard Fjær Grip
- Brandon Burns
- Brian D. Inouye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3994-2460)
- Makoto Ueno
- Giannka Picache
- Chris Lefler
Institutions
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Palo Alto University (US)
- AeroVironment (United States) (US)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1109/aero63441.2025.11068461
- Primary Topic
- Planetary Science and Exploration
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00