China presents an air-earth drone for the exploration of the planet Mars

Thanks to its design characteristics, this explorer vehicle is able to take off when necessary, dodge obstacles and show exceptional resistance, CGTN reported.

Developed by the Astronautical School of the Harbin Institute of Technology, the Double Earth-Aire-Aire Non-Purpose Air-purpose Vehicle Prototype weighs only 300 grams, approximately the same as an apple.

You can easily roll on the ground, take off when necessary and dodge obstacles. In addition, with its ability to transform into multiple forms, such as double wheels or spherical form, it can adapt to different environments and land. It can also be equipped with mechanical arms to perform various tasks.

In order to adapt to special missions scenarios such as the exploration of Mars, the school research team exceeded a series of technical challenges to design the drone so that it was light and compact to take off and terrify freely, at the same time as Minimized energy consumption.

Change the center of gravity

According to Zhu Yimin, a doctoral candidate from the institute who participated in the investigation, controlled by a servomotor, the drone can roll forward on the ground by changing his center of gravity, just as a teddy toy does. In the air, it is mainly based on a couple of coaxial rotors that revolve in the opposite direction to achieve control of the direction and a stable flight.

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The team has also developed multiple models with different configurations. When rolling on the ground, these drones can move using preserved energy, achieving a resistance more than six times greater than that of drones of the same size.

Meanwhile, with modular and light structural designs, the functions of these drones can be expanded to meet the requirements of tasks such as monitoring, failure detection and maintenance.

According to the research team, such as Mars’s atmosphere is extremely thin, some Martian aerial vehicles have already been tested for application in the exploration of the planet’s surface. At present, the Air-Tierra multidominium drone prototype has completed its prototype design and is expected to exceed similar Martian aerial vehicles already existing in terms of functionality and resistance.

It is expected that in the future dual purpose Drones Tierra-Aire developed by China with both aerial and terrestrial mobility capabilities will achieve greater resistance and an observation time extended on Mars, said Zhang Lixian, professor at the Astronautical School of the Institute Harbin technology.

He added that these drones are also expected to be applied in various environments, such as underground coal mines, underground pipe tickets and meters, to help in underground construction and the exploration of unknown underground spaces.