Conceptual Design and Aerodynamic Analysis of Blended Wing Body Aircraft With Distributed Propulsion for Mars

Abstract The present paper describes the design and development of three different Blended Wing Body (BWB) Aircraft with Distributed Propulsion for the purpose of deployment on Mars. This set of aircraft are nicknamed the Martian Aerial Reconnaissance Vehicle for Intraplanetary Navigation (MARVIN) models. These design concepts are tailored for payload flight with instruments with the purpose of environment surveying. The three different aircrafts are for three different weight classes: less than 500 lbs, 500-5000 lbs, and 5000-50,000 lbs. The aircrafts must follow a set of requirements to be able to conduct environmental surveys and for survivability on Mars. Details of this paper include mission profile, concept sketch iterations, empty weight and fuel fraction estimation, takeoff weight calculations, as well as CAD models of the aircraft and CFD analysis. CFD analysis determines the lift and drag values for each aircraft, generates velocity and pressure plots, tests various dimensions, and compares BWB to traditional aircraft.