Massiva: MArs surface sampling and imaging Vtol aircraft

This paper proposes a future planetary exploring aircraft for the Martian environment, and considers the mission that follows from the benefits of a small vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) all-electric system; enabling contact sampling at a number of locations on the planets surface. The recent rover missions have shown the increased value which a mobile platform can add to a mission. The 15 kg aircraft will cover several thousand kilometres in its design lifetime of around twenty take-off cycles. This will enable a large amount of surface contact data to be extracted from a variety of locations as well as the non-contact data from the lower atmosphere and imagery during flight.