Thrust-Lift Conversion in a Fixed-Wing Vertical Take-Off and Landing UAS in the Martian Atmosphere

The recent success of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has demonstrated the feasibility of flight on Mars. While Ingenuity exceeded its original mission objectives, it faces limitations in terms of autonomy, range, and payload capacity. To address these shortcomings, a new generation of rotary-wing and fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) has been proposed in the literature. Fixed-wing vehicles offer superior range and payload capabilities compared to helicopters and multicopters; however, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) maneuvers remain a significant challenge. In this work, we analyze the aerodynamic feasibility of fixed-wing UAS achieving VTOL using the deflected slipstream (DS) concept applied to a blown wing. The study progresses from low-fidelity 2D Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations to high-fidelity 3D Large Eddy Simulations (LES). We compare modeling approaches for simulating flow over a blown wing and evaluate their accuracy in predicting the nondimensional lift-to-thrust ratio. The comparison highlights trade-offs between accuracy and computational efficiency that inform method selection for UAS design and optimization.