大山 聖

Pit craters on Mars are assumed to be used as manned exploration bases and it is highly possible that life signature would be discovered there since its temperature is appropriate and it is less affected by radiation. Regarding pit crater exploration, helicopter which can climb and descend quickly is expected to be utilized. This paper introduces blade shape optimization of Mars helicopter exploring pit craters. Definition of a mission, selection of aircraft types, conceptual design, optimization of blade twist angle and airfoil, and rotor test are conducted. As a result, hexa-rotor which has robustness, resistance to gust, and fault tolerance is proposed. Moreover, it is confirmed that the mission can be accomplished, carrying instruments on the helicopter within payload weight. Hovering performance of the helicopter is improved by optimizing blade twisting angle and airfoil. And it is found that there is a good correlation between experiment and numerical simulation with respect to the helicopter's hovering performance.

<title>Abstract</title> A fixed-wing aircraft called Mars Airplane Balloon Experiment −2 (MABE2) developed by the authors was the subject of high-altitude flight demonstration test in this paper, which can simulate the near-actual environment of a Martian atmospheric flight. Although the flight condition is in the low-Reynolds-number region due to low density at high altitude, the wing suffers from aeroelastic deformation given the relatively high dynamic pressure load in the pull-up phase. Stereophotogrammetry was applied in the 6.5 m × 5.5 m low-speed wind tunnel at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aiming to optically measure MABE2’s aeroelastic deformation under dynamic pressure loads equivalent to high-altitude flight test, with the MABE2’s reinforced structural strength. The results of the accuracy test indicated that stereophotogrammetry measures aeroelastic deformation at high accuracy of ±0.1 mm around the image center and ±0.3 mm around the edge. A slight deflection of up to 4 mm was observed on the main wing, whereas both the main and tail wings were hardly twisted. Compared with flight-simulation-assumed errors, these deformations are extremely small and have a negligible effect on the high-altitude flight test. The study results confirmed the practicality and efficiency of this optical measurement technique in aeroelastic deformation measurement for a real light aircraft.

This paper reports the results of the aerodynamic deformation measurements of the meter-scale, entire shape, actual UAV in the wind tunnel using a video grammetry technique. The measured airplane was the airplane for Mars exploration being developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Japanese universities. Its main wing span length was 2.4 m. The video grammetry measurement was performed using VICON’s system. Retroactive markers and stickers were put on the airplane. JAXA’s 6.5 m × 5.5 m Low-Speed Wind Tunnel was used. The airplane was mounted on the strut support with pitch-free or pitch-locked conditions. The deformations of the main wing bending, the main wing twisting, the tail boom bending, and the elevator deflection angle change were revealed quantitatively. The bending stiffness of a main wing spar that was designed as a safety factor of 2.8 at load factor of 5 was sufficient. The main wing spar was located around a center of pressure of an airfoil and it showed enough stiffness for twisting at nominal condition. The effects of the main wing bending and twisting, and the tail boom bending on the aerodynamic performance were estimated but they were in an acceptable range from the standpoint of the controllability of the aerodynamic performance using control surfaces. Even though the servo motor was located near the elevator and the linkage between the servo motor and the elevator was short, the measured elevator deflection angle was at most 4% smaller than the angle at no-wind condition. The obtained results and presented method are useful for control, flight data analysis, and design of lightweight airplanes.

<p>We redesigned the Mars Airplane Balloon Experiment Two (MABE-2) based on MABE-1 to improve the vehicle's stability and controllability. Following the redesign, the MABE-2 vehicle had a larger horizontal tail volume than that of MABE-1 for improved stability performance. In addition, to further improve the stability and control characteristics, a rectangular planform was employed for the horizontal tail wing; in contrast, MABE-1 had a tapered planform. The vertical tail position of MABE-2 was moved to the end of the horizontal tail wing, because the vertical tail of MABE-1, which was positioned at the mid span of the horizontal tail wing, showed aerodynamic interaction with the horizontal tail wing. In this paper, we discussed the aerodynamic performance of a control surface based on computational fluid dynamics with variation in the deflection angle between the control surface and the horizontal tail (elevator), and we examined the effects of this redesign on longitudinal control characteristics. Numerical investigations confirmed the linear variation in the pitching moment and the aerodynamic force with the changing elevator deflection angle in MABE-2. Surface pressure observations indicated that MABE-2 shows a smooth variation in the pressure distribution with changing elevator deflection angle, while MABE-1 does not. These results demonstrate that the aerodynamic control characteristics of MABE-2 were improved in comparison to those of MABE-1.</p>