Optimising future exploration by understanding air flow on Mars
With Lidia Carós Roca, expert in Martian aerodynamics
"We’re some of the few researchers in the world looking at the physics of air flow in an atmosphere that’s around 100 times thinner than Earth’s."
Watching films like ‘Interstellar’ growing up, Lidia Carós Roca was fascinated by space and the stars. Now, as an aeronautics researcher at Imperial, she’s working with NASA to help develop next generation Mars helicopters.
Four years ago NASA flew a helicopter on Mars for the first time. The next ambitious challenge – to develop aerofoils capable of powering a helicopter that can carry payloads such as cameras and sensors – has been the focus of Lidia’s work during her Master’s project, PhD and now as a postdoctoral researcher.
Since a helicopter or drone could potentially cover in three days the same distance that a ground-based rover covers in five years, and take samples in hard-to-reach areas, solving this challenge could revolutionise our knowledge of the red planet.
Lidia, a researcher in Imperial’s Department of Aeronautics, says: “The Martian aerodynamics field is relatively under-explored. We’re some of the few researchers in the world looking at the physics of air flow in an atmosphere that’s around 100 times thinner than Earth’s.”
“A helicopter on Mars experiences similar flow conditions to an insect on earth. We’ve used genetic algorithms which simulate the process of evolution to develop a framework for optimising the shape of the aerofoils on the blades.”
As well as testing different aerofoils in a ‘virtual wind tunnel’ simulator created at Imperial using a software called PyFR , Lidia and the team have travelled to NASA’s Ames Research Centre in California, and visited a real-life Mars wind tunnel at Tohoku University in Japan. This collaboration has reaped rich rewards, proving that Imperial’s simulations are very successful in replicating Martian conditions.
In the context of the high cost of space missions, this research is critical. It is impossible to remotely control an aircraft on Mars because there is a signal delay of six minutes to Earth, which means the flight path must be pre-programmed: if the helicopter fails, the mission is over.
About Lidia
Lidia was inspired to study engineering at an early age. “I’ve always taken great inspiration from my father who was an engineer and passed away when I was 11,” she says. “I think my sister and I both focused on maths and physics, and later studied engineering, as a way to stay connected to him.”
Lidia admits she struggled with believing in her potential when she was studying for her undergraduate degree in Barcelona. But despite occasionally experiencing ‘imposter syndrome’, Lidia applied for a Master’s degree at Imperial (the Advanced Computational Methods for Aeronautics MSc), which she saw as the perfect fit for her academic passion and career development. She says that her time at Imperial – first as an MSc student, then a PhD researcher, and now a research postgraduate – propelled her confidence and opened up a world of new opportunities.
During her PhD studies, Lidia’s supervisors encouraged her to apply for the Amelia Earhart Fellowship – a prestigious honour given to a woman working in aerospace engineering – which she was awarded. She then went on to win the Vertical Flight Society Fellowship and the NASA Group Achievement Award. She has also published three top tier journal papers and a number of conference papers, as well as being awarded her PhD.
Lidia believes that passion, hard work and trusting your capabilities can allow you to achieve extraordinary things. She says: “I wish more people at the early stages of their studies and careers recognised their own potential. I never imagined I could work with NASA. But I’ve learned that anyone can achieve extraordinary things if they believe in themselves, stay open to opportunities and put in the energy and hard work to achieve them.”
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