From Robert Michelson, Georgia Institute of Technology
“Insects make the most of their energy supply by vibrating at the same
frequency as they flap their wings, which makes them buzz,” or at least New
Scientist would have us believe so
(2 June, p 20).
In your article, your editors took a flight of fancy by adding technically
incorrect details into the account of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts
(NIAC) programme to create an insect-like aerial robot to use as a Mars
Surveyor.
NIAC’s study builds on related research funded by the US Air Force, Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Although the underlying technology is “proprietary” to the Georgia Institute,
pending successful patent applications, none of it has ever been government
“classified” as stated in your article.
The aerial robot uses chemical fuel that can be synthesised on Mars, and is
not at all “like a battery”, to produce anaerobic, ignitionless propulsion of
two pairs of wings that flap 180° out of phase. Waste gas from the fuel
modulates the coefficient of lift of each wing on a beat-to-beat basis to modify
flight stability and navigational control. This active flow control of the wings
creates lift far greater than what is theoretically possible for the wing shape,
and provides the performance necessary for slow, manoeuvrable flight in the thin
atmosphere of Mars.
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Contrary to your article, the aerial robot’s body has never had “springs
connected to the wings that cause the wings to rotate forwards and backwards as
they flap”.
