A NASA-led study found a 19% to 43% lift-to-drag gain for an experimental Mars helicopter blade under the conditions studied, while separate vehicle modeling showed how payload would limit flight range.
Researchers compared the roamx-0201 airfoil with CLF5605, the profile used by NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter. They studied the designs at a Reynolds number of 20,000 and Mach 0.60 across several angles, using two computer simulation methods and tests in Tohoku University’s Mars Wind Tunnel.
The computer simulations, OVERFLOW and PyFR, also indicated about 20% higher maximum lift and better performance near a stall. NASA says the new design is not yet ready to fly on Mars.
The distinction between blade performance and vehicle range matters. NASA’s Oct. 20 announcement described a possible 18.7-kilometer flight with science instruments aboard. A separate NASA vehicle-model paper assigns that distance to an Ingenuity-class helicopter fitted with a ROAMX rotor and carrying no payload. With a 0.6-kilogram payload and 0.148 rotor solidity, the paper estimates 6.2 kilometers. Other modeled rotor solidities yield estimates of 8.5 and 13.25 kilometers for the same load.
Those distances are projections, not Mars flight records. Ingenuity’s longest actual flight was 0.704 kilometers, and it completed 72 flights. The vehicle model also assumes communications equipment like Ingenuity’s, which relied on a rover to relay signals. Its authors said longer operating ranges would require additional communications equipment or the ability to return autonomously within relay range.
NASA puts surface pressure on Mars at about 1% of Earth’s, making it harder for helicopter rotors to generate lift. The vehicle-model authors say more efficient rotors could increase the scientific instruments a helicopter carries and help it reach terrain inaccessible to rovers and landers.
NASA plans to launch SkyFall, a separate three-helicopter Mars mission, in late 2028. The agency describes roamx-0201 as research for missions after SkyFall.
