Videos

This video and audio show the results of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover using its SuperCam microphone to record the sounds of a Martian dust devil – the first time any such recording has been made. The dust devil passed by on Sept. 27, 2021, the 215th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. The dust devil was estimated to be 82 feet (25 meters) wide, at least 387 feet (118 meters) tall, and moving at about 12 miles per hour (19 kilometers per hour).
At the same time that SuperCam’s microphone recorded the dust devil, Perseverance’s weather sensors (measuring wind, pressure, temperature, and dust) and the Navigation camera (Navcam) were on. This allowed scientists to combine sound, image, and atmospheric data. The unique combination of these data, along with atmospheric modeling, allowed the researchers to estimate the dust devil’s dimensions.
Capturing a passing dust devil takes some luck. Scientists can’t predict when they’ll pass by, so rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity routinely monitor in all directions for them. As scientists see them occur more frequently at a certain time of day, or approaching from a certain direction, they’ll focus their monitoring to try and catch a dust devil.
The video included here shows three rows. The top row is a raw image taken by Navcam of the Martian surface; while the camera is capable of color, it takes black-and-white images when searching for dust devils to reduce the amount of data sent back to Earth (most of the images come back without a dust devil detected).
The middle row shows the same image processed with change detection software to indicate where movement occurred as time passed by; color is used to show density of dust, going from blue (noise to low density dust) through purple to yellow. The last row is a graph showing a sudden drop in air pressure recorded by Perseverance’s weather sensor suite, called Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer, provided by Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) at the Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial in Madrid and the sound amplitude from SuperCam’s microphone.

In the frame of its research activities, ISAE-SUPAERO develops electronic components and systems for scientific and space applications. Space is a very aggressive environment, in particular because high-energy particles emitted by the sun or trapped in radiation belts threaten the health of astronauts, the properties of materials and the proper functioning of electronic chips.
In order to reproduce the effects of this ionizing radiation on electronic technologies in the laboratory, ISAE-SUPAERO has equipped itself with an X-ray irradiation chamber with an energy of up to 320 keV. This video presents a classic use of this equipment: an electronic component to be tested is placed in the irradiation chamber, the X-ray tube is powered up, and the effects on the operation of the component (here an image sensor) are observed and measured in real time.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and nanosatellites have numerous applications in the media, industry, agriculture and telecommunications sectors. These two types of platforms share the common constraint of embedding complex systems in a reduced volume. One of the key elements of embedded communication systems is the antenna, which must also be compact and light.
ISAE-SUPAERO, in collaboration with ENAC and ANYWAVES, is currently developing dielectric antennas made by 3D printing of ceramics that meet the demanding criteria of integration on UAVs and nanosatellites. Thanks to the anechoic chamber available at ISAE-SUPAERO, the researchers involved in the development of these original antennas can characterize their radiation properties with precision and thus validate the new technological solutions proposed.

The “S-Visu” wind tunnel is the only open loop wind tunnel in the department. Unlike closed loop wind tunnels recirculating air, air is here drawn from outside, passes through the test section and is evacuated outside thanks to a downstream centrifugal suction compressor.
This wind tunnel is thus particularly suitable for flow disturbances studies: the disturbances generated in the test section are evacuated without modifying the conditions entering the wind tunnel. The test section is 45 cm wide and 3 m long. The velocity can reach 35 m/s. Without any disturbance, the geometry, and treatment of the duct (filters, honeycomb, and fine grids) guarantee good spatial and temporal homogeneity of the flow which has a turbulence rate close to 0.3%.
Here, oscillating shutters are placed downstream the test section to generate controlled quasi-sinusoidal temporal variations of the flow velocity. The pressure losses associated with the closing of the shutters can generate a sharp decrease as strong as 50% of the streamwise velocity.
Such aerological disturbances can be recorded during a low altitude flight, particularly in an urban environment, for which the presence of buildings accentuates the intensity of apparent wind fluctuations. Thus, a micro-UAV flying at 10 m/s is likely to encounter wind gust of large spatial extension and of similar amplitude to its own forward speed. The properties and effects of atmospheric turbulence on the flight performance of these light, small-sized and low-speed aircraft are therefore very different from what is conventionally known for airliners.
The challenge is to design drones, microdrones, nanodrones robust to wind gust.
In that video, the unsteady aerodynamic response of a wing subjected to a sinusoidal variation of the streamwise velocity is studied. The wing dimensions and speeds studied are representative of a microdrone flight in an urban environment.
The desired gust properties are ensured by appropriate control of the oscillating shutters. The unsteady flow is finely characterized using a hot wire probe fixed at the inlet of the test stream. The selected gust has an average speed of 10m/s with variations of +/- 4m/s over a period of 0.8 s. The overall aerodynamic performances are measured by noting the temporal evolutions of the lift, drag and pitching moment forces for different flight angles of attack.
To analyze the origin of these performances, it is necessary to properly qualify and understand the physics of the flow around the model. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) provides instantaneous flow velocity fields. By appropriate post-processing, the dynamics of the flow during the wind gust can be extracted.

With the emergence of the “New Space”, more and more CubeSats are being launched. On these small platforms (CubeSats are made up of one or more standard cubes of 10 cm edge length), several subsystems have to coexist. If electric propulsion solutions help in saving space and weight to be carried on board, their electromagnetic compatibility with onboard communication systems is still questioned.
The ISAE-SUPAERO in collaboration with the CNES and the LAPLACE are currently developing simulation tools and characterization methods to provide engineers with CubeSats sizing tools and efficient testing facilities to address this issue. This experimental bench developed at ISAE-SUPAERO allows the characterization of a plasma discharge representative of an electric thruster, as well as the measurement of its interactions with microwave signals generated by nearby communication antennas. The experimental data obtained will finally allow the calibration of the numerical analysis tools currently being developed by our teams.

Since 2017, the ISAE-SUPAERO Aerodynamic and Propulsion Department (DAEP) is equipped with an anechoic chamber, an acoustic experimental room where all the walls are treated to study the noise generated by equipements without acoustic waves reflexions.
The DAEP uses this test mean to study the aerodynamic noise generated for instance by drone rotors, to be able to propose and test noise reduction strategies.
Experiments perfomed in this facility also allow the development of new experimental methodologies and to validate the numerical simulation codes developed at the department.

The DART mission reached its target on September 27 at 1 h 14 am on the asteroid Dimorphos! ISAE-SUPAERO researchers participate in this first planetary defense mission.
Dr. Naomi Murdoch - researcher at ISAE-SUPAERO and scientific member of the DART and HERA missions - comments on the objectives of DART & those of the European HERA mission which will arrive in 2026 to characterize the crater left by DART and to study the internal structure of the Dimorphos asteroid!