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An Italian solar drone for missions to Mars

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Explore the surface of Mars with a solar-powered winged drone. This is the goal of the “X5” project, a small autonomous aircraft developed by the Italian company Vector Robotics to support astronauts in future exploration missions of the Red Planet. In the coming months, X5 will be tested again in the Utah desert (USA), which has a landscape similar to the Martian one. A terrestrial version of this solar-powered drone, called “Eos”, is also being studied, which can be used for long-range observation and research activities.

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The X5 drone – reads a note from Rome Drone Webinar Channel – is a tiltrotor, therefore capable of taking off and landing vertically, and has automatic flight capabilities. It was designed as a test bench for the aircraft that can be used in the future on Mars: it will be an integral part, in fact, of the international simulation missions “Amadee21” and “Smops”, which will take place at the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah desert in the next months of October and November, to experiment with 3D mapping of the Martian surface in connection with a rover on the ground and also to simulate search and rescue flights of possible astronauts in danger. The “Eos” drone, derived from the X5, is instead an autonomous solar aircraft for terrestrial applications, designed to guarantee a flight autonomy of 3 hours, the longest currently on the market in this category. It is equipped with a modular structure, two cameras (HD visible and thermal) and can reach an altitude of 4,500 meters and a distance of 20 km. It can be used for aerial photogrammetry, surveillance and rescue missions.

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These and other new winged drone projects were presented during the “Roma Drone Webinar Channel” (Rdwc), the live streaming channel on drone legislation, technology and business, on the Facebook page @romadrone on the theme “Drones with wings. Technological developments, new projects and first experiments in Bvlos of fixed-wing UAS and tiltrotors ”.

During the next episode of Rdwc, other new Italian projects will also be presented that see the use of fixed-wing drones and tiltrotors, including: the experimentation of the transport of biomedical products organized by Leonardo, Telespazio and Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù, in collaboration with the National Civil Aviation Authority (ENAC), using a drone from the Swiss company RigiTech; Enel’s program, through the Italian-Israeli company Infralab, for the inspection of power lines using the drone of the Israeli company Gadfin; the project of the new “Rapier X-25” drone created by Sky Eye Systems (Oma Group) for military and civil applications.

“Small fixed-wing drones and tiltrotors will be increasingly used for long-range missions, especially for monitoring the territory and large networks and also for the delivery of materials, for example in the postal and healthcare sectors”, he explained Luciano Castro placeholder image, director and host of Rdwx. “In this episode, we will have the opportunity to discuss with ENAC and with the managers of various Italian companies on the development prospects of this market in our country”.

The Rdwc channel is promoted by Roma Drone Conference, the professional event dedicated to the Italian drone community, organized by the Ifimedia association and by Mediarkè, in collaboration with Enac, the European University of Rome and Aopa Italia-Divisione Apr.

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