Preliminary design and thermal analysis of a miniature mars airplane thermal control system

Mars is the next milestone in our exploration of the solar system. The presence of an atmosphere on Mars signifies that an airplane could travel in its atmosphere using the aerodynamic forces of flight. An airplane offers the possibility to obtain high-resolution data on a regional scale of several hundreds to thousands of kilometers, which cannot be achieved with rovers or satellites. A conceptual design of a 3.5 kg fixed-wing, propeller-driven, deployable miniature airplane was developed by Tohoku University and ISAS/JAXA to study the feasibility of a Mars Airplane. This paper will describe the preliminary design and analysis of the Mars Airplane's thermal control system for its flight through the Martian atmosphere. Initial analyses are discussed and results of thermal control development are presented which detail the design process for the thermal control system.