By 2035, China promises to create a hypersonic aircraft that can transport anywhere on Earth in one hour,
Mars' highly tenuous atmosphere complicatesthe use of conventional planes and helicopters the atmosphere of the Red Planet. To solve the problem, Chinese scientists have proposed the use of hypersonic drones - compact aircraft for flights across Mars.
According to the calculations of Professor Xu Xu and his colleaguesfrom the School of Astronautics at Beihang University in Beijing, a 500kg fueled drone can fly over Martian terrain at five times the speed of sound for 1,000 km.
“The first hypersonic flight on Mars is not expectedearlier than 30 years later. There are a lot of technical issues to be resolved, ”Xu explains. "But when humans begin to colonize Mars, there will be a need for transport that will fly long distances."
The atmosphere of Mars is 96% carbon dioxidegas, which means that normal oxidation processes in liquefied fuel are impossible. There will be no combustion, as in the Earth's atmosphere. But some metals, for example, magnesium, burn well in carbon dioxide.
For the efficiency of the magnesium engine, Chinesescientists propose using two sequential combustion chambers. This will solve the problem of low thrust of such engines. At the beginning of the exploration of Mars, magnesium can be imported from Earth, and then used by local developments. According to researchers, there is some magnesium ore on the Red Planet.
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