Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengtrab

A Chinese research team is developing a lightweight robotic drone with a targeted special mission scenario of Mars exploration.

The air-ground dual-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) weighs only 300 grams, equivalent to the weight of an apple. The development team is at the School of Astronautics of Harbin Institute of Technology.

Shifting center of gravity

Seen as showing promising potential in future Red Planet science work, the UAV can take off at any time, traverse obstacles, and boasts superb endurance, reports China Central Television (CCTV).

“On the ground, it mainly rolls by shifting its center of gravity,” said Zhu Yimin, a Ph.D candidate of the School of Astronautics at Harbin Institute of Technology.

“In the air, it relies on a pair of contra-rotating coaxial rotors, controlled by a steering engine to adjust the forward direction, to control torque and force, ultimately achieving stable flight,” Zhu told CCTV.

Image credit: CCTV/Inside Outer Space screengtrab

Multiple models

The UAV work entails multiple models of air-ground dual-mode robots with different configurations, CCTV reports, moving by rolling close to the ground, saving power, reducing energy consumption, and achieving a flight endurance time of more than six times that of drones of the same size.

According to Zhang Lixian, a professor within the School of Astronautics, the hope is the aerial vehicle can show off its long endurance and observational abilities on Mars.

“Our second goal is for such machines to be suitable for construction in many underground spaces and for exploring unknown underground spaces. We also need robotic means for inspection and environmental detection. We have now materialized all these functions,” said Zhang.

Ingenuity on Mars.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Ingenuity

The Chinese aerial drone work is taking a different approach that NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. That milestone-making autonomous aircraft operated for nearly three years of flight on Mars, making 72 flights within Jezero Crater.

Dispatched by NASA’s Perseverance rover, Ingenuity weighed 4 pounds on Earth (1.81 kilograms on Mars); 1.5 pounds on Mars (.68 kilograms) – 1,814.3 grams.

Ingenuity first lifted off the martian surface on April 19, 2021, making its last flight on January 18, 2024. On flight 72 rotor blades on the craft were damaged during landing, permanently grounding the vehicle.

As the first aircraft on another world, Ingenuity flew more than 14 times farther than planned while logging more than two hours of total flight time.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For a video look at the potential Mars craft developed by China, go to:

https://www.facebook.com/NewsContent.CCTVPLUS/videos/600097986193696