Marsbee – Swarm of Flapping Wing Flyers for Enhanced Mars Exploration (Phase I: Final Report. NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC).)

Abstract: Mars exploration has received significant interest from academia, industry, government, and the general public. Despite continued interest, flying on Mars remains challenging, mainly due to the ultra-thin Martian atmospheric density. Although the gravitational acceleration on Mars is 38 percent of Earth’s 9.8 meters per second squared, the Martian atmospheric density is only 1.3 percent of the air density on Earth. The aerodynamic forces are proportional to the ambient fluid density. Therefor…