Special Seminar with Dr. C. Kang, University of Alabama “Marsbees―Bioinspired Flight Vehicles for Mars Exploration”
With the emerging interest in landing humans on Mars, it is critical that our understanding of the Martian environment is complete and accurate. One way to improve our model of the red planet is through aerial surveillance, which provides information that augments the observations made by ground-based exploration and satellite imagery.
However, flying on Mars is challenging due to the ultra-low-density Mars environment. This talk will cover our recent bioinspired solutions for flapping wing Mars flight, utilizing the same high lift producing mechanisms employed by insects on Earth. I will first discuss our measurements and analysis that the lift coefficient of Monarch butterflies, whose annual migration is the longest of insects, increases with decreasing air density.
Motivated by this improved aerodynamic performance at lower density environments, we will derive a scaling method to find bioinspired Mars flight solutions. We demonstrate that a family of solutions exists for designs that are O(10) gram, verified using a well-validated Navier-Stokes equation solver and physical experiments.
About this event
- Date&Time: June 26, 2019. 14:30–15:30
- Venue: Seminar Room 303 Kiwami, 3F Academic Link Center I-Building
- This seminar is open to public and the advanced registration is not necessary.
