Flying solo and solar to Mars

This paper describes the work done by the Autonomous Systems Lab of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) on the global design of an unmanned solar airplane that can fly continuously over days and night. Part of the Sky-Sailor Project, a first prototype was designed and demonstrated to have very good flight characteristics. The prototype achieved an autonomous flight of five hours with its energy only from the sun. A lightweight control and navigation system was also designed for the aircraft.