China develops supersonic drone on Mars

Supersonic drone with a speed of nearly 6,200km / h, using magnesium fuel to burn carbon dioxide available in the red planet's atmosphere.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter can fly more than 600m, even though Mars has an atmosphere 100 times thinner than Earth's, which is not suitable for helicopter wings to rotate. However, according to calculations by Professor Xu Xu and his colleagues at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the 500kg supersonic drone can fly over the Martian surface at 5 times faster than sound with a range. 1,000km.

Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth. (Photo: NASA).

Gravity on Mars is only 1/3 of that of Earth. The lower air density results in less heat generated from the turbulence than on Earth, at the same altitude. "The first supersonic flight on Mars cannot take place within the next 30 years due to many technical problems to be solved," Xu said. "But as humans begin to colonize Mars and a number of settlements build in different locations around the planet, the need to travel long distances will arise."

Xu and colleagues published part of the study in the journal Manned Spaceflight . According to their description, the supersonic drone uses magnesium as fuel because there is almost no oxygen on Mars. Humans cannot breathe in the Martian atmosphere which contains 96% carbon dioxide. But magnesium can burn carbon dioxide. Japanese scientists proposed using magnesium as fuel to move around the red planet in the 1980s. In 2016, a NASA team designed a magnesium-powered machine to help rockets slow down during landing. to the surface of the planet. However, no researchers have yet to think of a supersonic vehicle on Mars due to the great obstacle of full force.

To increase the efficiency of using magnesium to burn carbon dioxide, Xu's team designed a straight-line jet engine, allowing the magnesium powder to be burned twice in separate chambers. The vehicle will have a cruise speed of 6,174 km/h, significantly lower than on Earth. The supersonic drone model will not have a large wing but elongated like a cruise missile.

The cruising altitude of the supersonic drone is 5,000m, lower than commercial aircraft, to match the thin atmosphere of Mars. The drone model will need to avoid mountains three times higher than Mount Everest. Xu et al. are in the proof-of-concept stage of the technology. They will need to build a small prototype and test it in a wind tunnel containing carbon dioxide to simulate the environment on Mars. Although the red planet has magnesium ore, the first flights of the vehicle will use metal mined from Earth.