2023 in Numbers

5 talks at conferences

1. Academic Space Conference dedicated to the memory of academician Korolev S.P. and other prominent Russian scientists, January 2023 (the tile of our presentation was 'A Solar Wing-Tail Martian Science UAV: Design Space Exploration')

2. International Conference on Aerospace Science and Engineering, June 2023 (the title of our presentation was 'Long-Endurance Mars Exploration Flying Vehicle: A Project Brief')

3. The Fourteenth Moscow Solar System Symposium, October 2023 ('A science Martian Airplane: Preliminary Configurations and Radiation Loading Analysis')

4. International Aeronautics Congress, December 2023 ('Selection of the airfoil for the wing of a science Martian airplane')

5. New Materials, Technologies, and Devices in Aircraft and Manned Space Exploration, December 2023 ('Aerodynamic Optimization of a VTOL airplane')

2 best conference talk awards

The lecture 'What could the first winged explorer of the Red Planet be like?' given in 5 schools in Moscow and the Moscow region

3 LEMFEV configurations explored

1. Wing-tail, solar (WT1)

2. Wing-tail, rocket (WT3)

3. Boxwing, solar (BW1)

16 topics investigated

1. Propulsion systems for Martian UAVs

2. Structure of the Matlab code for the design and analysis of Martian UAVs at conceptual and preliminary design stages

3. Data obtained using the Mars Climate Database

4. Analysis of radiation loading during the UAV's delivery to Mars and during its operation on Mars

5. Specifications and structures of the UAV systems

6. The UAV's aerodynamic analysis

7. Constraint diagram for a solar tiltrotor (BW1 layout)

8. Optimization of the ducted fan for the pusher UAV configuration. Preparation for an experiment in the MAI T-1 wind tunnel

9. Rationale for choosing lithium-sulfur batteries

10. Calculation of the dive recovery after separation of the UAV from the landing module (V-n Diagram)

11. Results of numerical aerodynamic analysis of the solar wing tail LEMFEV configuration (WT1)

12. Ishii-based airfoil wing design: studying the aerodynamic characteristics of the airfoil using liquid crystals by visualizing surface temperature and shear stress

13. Structural design and analysis of the WT3 configuration

14. Calculation of the average power density of some of the scientific instruments of the ExoMars-2022 mission

15. Planning a test flight for a UAV technology demonstrator in Stratosphere

16. Enhancing the Airfoil Performance for a Fixed-Wing Martian Aircraft

3000+ Matlab code lines

1 website

2 new team members

And last, but not least,

Numerous design mistakes!