Aerodynamic Analysis and Deployment Mechanism of A Foldable Mars Quadrotor

The Mars quadrotor is a vertical take-off and landing aerial platform developed to enhance the efficiency of Mars exploration. The four-blade rotor has a high thrust coefficient due to its high solidity, which enables the quadrotor to navigate the Martian atmospheric environment efficiently. This paper proposes a payload-carrying Mars quadrotor featuring four four-bladed rotors that can fold along the rotor arms. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is employed to perform numerical hovering simulations, exploring the propulsion capability and aerodynamic efficiency of rotors with different diameters. The mass distribution and hovering time are estimated when the quadrotor consists of the rotors with the highest figure of merit. The results demonstrate that a larger rotor diameter of the quadrotor yields greater payload capacity and shorter hovering time. During the launch, the quadrotor is folded and constrained within an envelope to protect it from vibrations and shocks. A lifting mechanism with shape-constraint slides is utilized for quadrotor deployment.