Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer or MAGGIE is a proposed compact, autonomous, fixed wing, vertical take-off/landing (VTOL),

electric aircraft An electric aircraft is an aircraft powered by electricity. Electric aircraft are seen as a way to reduce the environmental effects of aviation, providing zero emissions and quieter flights. Electricity may be supplied by a variety of methods, ...

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

. It is designed to operate on

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

. Range with a fully charged battery would be at an altitude of 1,000 meters. The aircraft features

solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.

s on its wings and fuselage. The total range per Martian year would be – more than twice the circumference of Mars. Mars' atmosphere density is 6.35

mbar The bar is a metric unit of pressure defined as 100,000 Pa (100 kPa), though not part of the International System of Units (SI). A pressure of 1 bar is slightly less than the current average atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea ...

, 160x thinner than

Earth's atmosphere The atmosphere of Earth is composed of a layer of gas mixture that surrounds the Earth's planetary surface (both lands and oceans), known collectively as air, with variable quantities of suspended aerosols and particulates (which create weathe ...

at 1013.2 mbar. During the southern winter, the global atmospheric pressure on Mars is 25% lower than during summer, because some atmospheric freezes on the

Martian polar ice caps The planet Mars has two permanent polar ice caps of water ice and some dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide, CO2). Above kilometer-thick layers of water ice permafrost, slabs of dry ice are deposited during a pole's winter, lying in continuous darknes ...

. MAGGIE has a cruise

lift coefficient In fluid dynamics, the lift coefficient () is a dimensionless quantity that relates the lift generated by a lifting body to the fluid density around the body, the fluid velocity and an associated reference area. A lifting body is a foil or a co ...

CL of 3.5, nearly an order of magnitude higher than conventional

subsonic aircraft A subsonic aircraft is an aircraft with a maximum speed less than the speed of sound (Mach 1). The term technically describes an aircraft that flies below its critical Mach number, typically around Mach 0.8. All current civil aircraft, including ...

, to overcome the low density of the Martian atmosphere. MAGGIE's cruise

Mach number The Mach number (M or Ma), often only Mach, (; ) is a dimensionless quantity in fluid dynamics representing the ratio of flow velocity past a boundary to the local speed of sound. It is named after the Austrian physicist and philosopher Erns ...

is 0.25. Mach speed on Mars is at "

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

", so cruising speed would be around at elevation. In January 2024, MAGGIE was one of thirteen proposals approved for Phase 1 funding by the NIAC.

Missions

* Study Martian core dynamo origin and timing from the weak magnetic fields found in the large impact basins. * Investigate the source of

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

signals detected by the Tunable Laser Spectrometer on the

Mars Science Laboratory Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed ''Curiosity (rover), Curiosity'', a Mars rover, in Gale (crater), Gale Crater on Augus ...

Gale crater Gale is a crater, and probable dry lake, at in the northwestern part of the Aeolis quadrangle on Mars. It is in diameter and estimated to be about 3.5–3.8 billion years old. The crater was named after Walter Frederick Gale, an amateur a ...

. * Map subsurface water ice at high resolution in the mid-latitudes.

References

{{Mars spacecraft, state=collapsed Mars

Proposed spacecraft Exploration of Mars Astronautics * NASA programs Futures studies organizations

Missions

See also

References