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

Planetary Exploration Using Biomimetics
An Entomopter for Flight on Mars
rocks, and subsurface ice would greatly accelerate the search for environments suitable for life.
NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft's gamma ray spectrometer instrument suite has detected
hydrogen in abundance in the upper meter (three feet) of soil in a large region surrounding the
planet's south pole [199]. This is indicative of water ice. Now, long range surface exploration is
needed.
MEPAG formulated the objectives, investigations, and measurements needed for the exploration
of Mars and prioritized them by subgroups of participants focused on the four principal exploration
goals. The four goals are:
1. Determine if life ever existed on Mars.
2. Determine climate on Mars.
3. Determine the evolution of the surface and interior of Mars (geology).
4. Prepare for human exploration.
To prepare for human exploration, one of the objectives is to conduct in situ engineering science
demonstrations. The investigation involves demonstrating terminal phase hazard avoidance and
precision landing, necessary to decrease the risks associated with soft landing, and to enable pinpoint
landing. The measurements required include demonstration of a terrain-recognition system
[228].
The prolonged lifetime and flight flexibility of the proposed Entomopter aircraft make it ideal to
contribute to several of the scientific objectives outlined above. Moreover, the active emitter
navigation and communication subsystem alternative with its radar functionality hold the potential
for dual use in addressing scientific objectives as described below.
5.2 Imaging and Terrain Mapping
It is reasonable to assume that the Entomopter will be required to perform high-resolution imaging
of the Mars terrain to obtain information to select the most promising sites for surface studies.
Fine-resolution imaging radars produce images that closely resemble aerial photographs.
Imaging can be accomplished with the Entomopter using the onboard communications/control
subsystem coupled with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to increase the spatial resolution in the
along-track direction. SAR is based on the generation of an effectively long linear array antenna
to achieve the improved spatial resolutions. In most cases, a single antenna is used and physically
translated (such as with the movement of an aircraft) to take up sequential positions along
a line [242]. At each position, a signal is transmitted, and the amplitude and phase of the
received signals are stored. After processing, these signals strongly resemble the signals that
would have been received by the elements of an actual linear array of elements. In airborne
ground-mapping systems, the antenna is usually side-looking, and the motion of the aircraft
translates the radiating element to each of the positions of the array. These array positions correspond
to the location of the antenna at the times of transmission and reception of the radar signals.
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Phase II Final Report