We've Seen a Helicopter on Mars. Next, Sailplanes? By Nancy_A
Because they would be without a propulsion system, they would be lightweight and compact enough to be packaged into CubeSats and deployed as secondary payloads at a relatively low cost. The sail planes would either unfold, like origami, or inflate, like high-tech inflatable paddleboards that rigidize at full size. Another option would be a rapid deployment during Entry, Descent, and Landing of a Mars Science Laboratory-class vehicle.
One idea for the mission is to have a balloon or blimp carry the sailplanes into the atmosphere and then release them. Then, as a sailplane, it would take advantage of thermal updrafts for static soaring. Even better would be dynamic soaring, which is flying technique used by radio-controlled gliders and sometimes even human-carrying gliders where the vehicle can gain energy by repeatedly crossing the boundary between air masses of different velocities.
“Numerical results for complete dynamic soaring cycles demonstrated that the total sailplane energy at the end of a soaring cycle increases by 6.8–11%,” the team wrote. They estimate that the sailplanes can continually harvest energy from the atmosphere, flying for hours or even days at a time. This image of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument of the Perseverance rover on June 15, 2021, the 114th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The location, “Airfield D” , is just east of the “Séítah” geologic unit. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS.
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