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AIAA - Aerospace America Online - FLUID DYNAMICS ENTERS THE 21ST CENTURY

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A strange, bread-loaf-shaped planetary entry vehicle plummets through the Martian atmosphere. When the craft has slowed sufficiently, its oddly shaped aeroshell peels away, and the spindly air vehicle inside unfolds its wings like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Even before the aerobot's propeller begins to rotate, millimeter-scale actuators on its wing begin fluttering furiously to stabilize and guide the vehicle. As the mother ship orbits above the Gorgonum Chaos region, it releases palm-sized micro air vehicles to explore gullies suspected of harboring liquid water and, perhaps, life.
AIAA - Aerospace America Online - FLUID DYNAMICS ENTERS THE 21ST CENTURY - As fluid dynamics progresses from science to engineering, dramatic advances in aerodynamics become possible, wherein form truly follows function.


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