Rotorcraft as Mars Scouts

Meso-scale Flight and Miniature Rotorcraft Development

This paper summarizes the initial development of a very small-scale rotorcraft that flies on its own power and carries sensors for atmospheric research or planetary exploration. Initial devices are electrically powered, ranging in size from 2 to 15 cm, and have involved challenges in aerodynamics, control, and manufacturing. Many interesting scaling issues arise as one shrinks a flight vehicle ...

Multi-Objective Optimization of Rotorcraft Compact Spinning Core-Spun Yarn Properties

Vertical Lift Planetary Aerial Vehicles: Three Planetary Bodies and Four Conceptual Design Cases

NASA Ames Research Center has been studying the feasibility of vertical lift aerial vehicles to support planetary science and exploration missions. Besides Earth, it appears that there are three planetary bodies within our solar system where vertical flight might not only be theoretically feasible, but would also have unique mission capabilities that no other platform (ground-based, aerial, or ...

Challenges in Rotorcraft Acoustic Flight Prediction and Validation

Challenges associated with rotorcraft acoustic flight prediction and validation are examined. First, an outline of a state-of-the-art rotorcraft aeroacoustic prediction methodology is presented. Components including rotorcraft aeromechanics, high resolution reconstruction, and rotorcraft acoustic prediction are discussed. Next, to illustrate challenges and issues involved, a case study is prese...

Building Knowledge Scouts Using KGL Metalanguage

Knowledge scouts are software agents that autonomously search for and synthesize user-oriented knowledge (target knowledge) in large local or distributed databases. A knowledge generation metalanguage, KGL, is used to creating scripts defining such knowledge scouts. Knowledge scouts operate in an inductive database, by which we mean a database system in which conventional data and knowledge man...