TeXtreme contributes to Mars helicopter flight

The Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, has now performed four successful test flights on the red planet and transitioned from technical demonstration phase to operation demonstration phase.

TeXtreme was used in the propeller blades, the solar panel substrate and some parts of the box on the bottom of the helicopter. The engineering team at NASA/JPL/AeroVironment chose TeXtreme due to its ultralight weight and thinness, which enabled the team to meet its challenging targets in these two areas.

The fibre architecture of TeXtreme not only provides better options for the weight saving and laminate thickness optimisation that is often desired in propeller blades and other UAV applications, but also plays a major role in suppressing microcracking and subsequent composite failure as a result of the so-called “thin-ply effect.”

Large temperature variations translate to big mechanical loads on any exposed composite structure. The climate on Mars is extreme, exposing the composite parts on Ingenuity to these high loads, but the application of TeXtreme significantly reduces the risk of the appearance of microcracks and leads to longer-lasting parts.

Henrik Blycker, co-founder and CEO of Oxeon, makers of TeXtreme, commented: “We were very honoured when TeXtreme was selected for the Mars Helicopter, and it has been very encouraging to follow the development of the components and the helicopter over the years. Seeing the live broadcast of the flight team at NASA when the data from the very first flight was down-linked was a true historic moment in our company history.”

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