Phase II Final Report - NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts

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Planetary Exploration Using Biomimetics An Entomopter for Flight on Mars The production of these fuels will require the ability to produce nitrogen, carbon and oxygen from the atmosphere present on Mars. The composition of the atmosphere and soil is listed under the environmental section. For the most part, these elements can be extracted from the atmosphere. The carbon and oxygen can be obtained by breaking apart the CO 2 within the atmosphere, and the nitrogen can be obtained by separating it out directly from the atmosphere. The oxygen and carbon can be produced in a fashion similar to that planned for the Mars 2003 Surveyor Lander. [137]. In this scheme, the atmosphere will be initially compressed using a sorption compressor. This type of compressor contains no moving parts. It achieves its compression by alternately cooling and heating a sorbent bed of materials. These materials adsorb CO 2 at low temperatures and release them at high temperatures. If the correct material can be found, this same process can be used to separate out nitrogen from the atmosphere. Once the CO 2 is removed from the atmosphere, the carbon and oxygen will then need to be separated. This can be accomplished by using a zirconia solid-oxide generator. The zirconia acts as an electrolyzer at elevated temperatures. At temperatures in excess of 750° C it will strip off oxygen ions from the CO 2 . If a current is applied to the zirconia material it will also act as an oxygen pump and pass the oxygen atoms through its crystal lattice thereby separating the oxygen out of the CO 2 . Based on these processes, it should be possible to generate the main constituents of the propellants. The next step would be to produce a reactor and process that can recombine these elements into the proper compounds to construct the desired propellant. It is also worth mentioning an additional nonconventional propellant concept that can potentially be used as fuel for the Entomopter. This concept is to utilize the atmosphere CO 2 directly as an oxidizer. CO 2 can react with various metals and act as the oxidizer for these reactions. The potential reactions that can utilize CO 2 as an oxidizer are listed in Table 3-18. Table 3-18: Combustion of Various Metals with CO 2 [289] Metal Reaction Ignition Temperature Mg Mg + CO 2 = MgO +CO 340°C Li 2Li + CO 2 = Li 2 O + CO 851°C Al 2AL + 3CO 2 = AL2O 3 + CO >2000°C The experimental work outlined in reference 4 demonstrated that CO 2 would combust with the metals listed in Table 3-18. In this experimental work, the CO 2 pressure was kept at 1 atmosphere (Earth) with a flow rate of 0.5 m/s. On Mars this would require a 100:1 compression ratio of the atmosphere to provide the same combustion environment. Additional work would need to be performed to determine the burning properties at lower CO 2 pressures. If lower pressures could be used, this would significantly reduce the compression ratio. Even if significant compression is required, it may be possible to achieve this through the motion of the drive engine 178 Phase II Final Report
Chapter 3.0 Vehicle Design 3.5 Fuel Storage and Production piston, similar to that of a conventional internal combustion engine. However, there are a number of issues associated with the used of this type of fuel. Mainly, the solid metal oxides will condense within the combustion cylinder and potentially clog the engine and be a source of wear on the piston. The main products of the combustion reactions listed in Table 3-18 are condensed metal oxide and CO. Of these, Mg is the easiest to ignite and has the highest burn rate, which is necessary to produce the required gas pressure for operation of the vehicle. Magnesium oxide, which makes up about 7.8% of the soil on Mars, is present in significant enough quantities to potentially mine the soil for the magnesium that is needed. If the magnesium can be effectively separated out of the soil, it will probably need to be dissolved in solution to make it usable as a propellant [278, 279]. One potential candidate would be methanol (CH 3 OH). However, the use of this type of fluid would require a supply of hydrogen as well as the ability to separate out carbon and oxygen from the atmosphere. This diminishes the attractiveness of a system that utilizes the CO 2 directly out of the Mars atmosphere. Based on results given in References 278 and 279, there are other significant issues with using methanol or any other fluid as a carrier for the magnesium. The magnesium would tend to settle out of the mixture, requiring frequent mixing. Also, the carrier fluid would need to evaporate before ignition of the magnesium would take place. There may be other carrier fluids that would better than methanol; however, a different approach using a gas as the carrier might work. A gas would eliminate the problems of evaporation and mixing, as well as the issues associated with the production of the carrier fluid. The ideal gas to use would be the Mars atmosphere itself. It may be possible to devise a mixing chamber on board the vehicle that would be used to mix the magnesium and atmosphere (CO 2 ) prior to injection into the combustion chamber. The atmosphere could be pumped in at a rate that would stir up the magnesium particles and form a suspension of magnesium power within the tank. The magnesium could be gravity-fed into this mixing chamber at a rate that would maintain the correct concentration of magnesium within the chamber (similar to sand falling through an hourglass). The rate of magnesium power that enters this mixing chamber could be controlled by changing the size of the orifice through which the magnesium power passes. This suspension could then be injected into the combustion chamber. This scheme would not require any gas production and would utilize a fairly simple control scheme of adjusting the atmosphere injector and opening to the magnesium power tank. The mixing chamber would need to be large enough to allow the magnesium to be suspended at the correct mixture ratio prior to being injected into the chamber. The design and evaluation of a CO 2 burning engine is beyond the scope of this effort; however, the concept has some potential benefits and may be worth evaluating in further detail during any future effort. 3.5.3 Propellant Production and Storage To evaluate the tradeoff between carrying hydrogen and producing fuel on Mars or just carrying the fuel directly, the overall mass of a system that produces fuel on the surface will be estimated, and this will be compared to the amount of fuel that can be carried directly from Earth utilizing 179
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Planetary Exploration Using Biomime
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Table of Contents Table of Contents
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List of Tables List of Tables Table
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List of Figures List of Figures Fig
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List of Figures Figure 3-54: Pressu
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List of Figures Figure 3-138: Stere
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List of Figures Figure 4-24: Averag
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List of Contributors List of Contri
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Executive Summary Executive Summary
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Chapter 1.0 Introduction Chapter 1.
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Chapter 1.0 Introduction Figure 1-2
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Chapter 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Histor
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Chapter 1.0 Introduction 1.2 Origin
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Chapter 1.0 Introduction 1.3 Missio
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1.3.3.1 Surface Imaging The Entomop
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Chapter 2.0 Entomopter Configuratio
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Chapter 3.0 Vehicle Design 3.1 Wing
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3. Density: 1.40E-2 kg/m 3 4. Press
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Chapter 4.0 Entomopter Flight Opera
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Chapter 5.0 Potential Payload Funct
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Chapter 6.0 Media Exposure 6.1 Intr
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Chapter 6.0 Media Exposure 6.3 Onli
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Chapter 6.0 Media Exposure 6.6 Spec
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Chapter 7.0 Conclusion Chapter 7.0
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Appendix A: Mars Atmosphere Data JP
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Appendix A: Mars Atmosphere Data Ge
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Appendix A: Mars Atmosphere Data Ge
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Appendix A: Mars Atmosphere Data Ma
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Appendix B: Sizing Results Appendix
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Appendix B: Sizing Results 30 Wing
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Appendix B: Sizing Results 16 Wing
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Appendix B: Sizing Results Length 0
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Appendix B: Sizing Results Lenght 0
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Appendix C: List of References Appe
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Appendix C: List of References 41.
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Phase II Final Report - NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts

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