Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m,

This simply designed ‘flying wing aircraft,’ could be the first airplane on Mars in the 2020s, that NASA Armstrong innovation may have made it possible.

Above: NASA Illustration / Dennis Calaba

A prototype of the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m, which is a flying wing aircraft with a twist, is planned to be ready for launch from a high altitude balloon later this year.

The Prandtl–m will be released at about at 100,000 feet altitude, which will simulate the flight conditions of the Martian atmosphere, said Al Bowers, NASA Armstrong chief scientist and Prandtl-m program manager.

Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m 2
Image credit NASA / Nicole Gillian

Bowers explained:

“The aircraft would be part of the ballast that would be ejected from the aeroshell that takes the Mars rover to the planet. It would be able to deploy and fly in the Martian atmosphere and glide down and land. The Prandtl-m could overfly some of the proposed landing sites for a future astronaut mission and send back to Earth very detailed high resolution photographic map images that could tell scientists about the suitability of those landing sites.”

Because the Prandtl-m could ride in a CubeSat as ballast aboard the aeroshell/Mars rover piggyback stack going to Mars in 2022-2024, the additional weight would not add to the mission’s cost, he said. Once in the Martian atmosphere, the Prandtl-m would emerge from its host, deploy and begin its mission.

Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m 3
Image credit NASA / Ken Ulbrich

source NASA