NASA has designed a prototype glider drone to fly on Mars. The prototype -- called a Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m -- is a boomerang-shaped two-foot long aircraft that clocks in at about 2.6 pounds, and will presumably be able to travel up to 20 miles when deployed from a Mars rover 2,000 feet above the planet's surface.
"The aircraft would be part of the ballast that would be ejected from the aeroshell that takes the Mars rover to the planet," said NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center chief scientist Al Bowers in a press statement released on June 29.
The hypothetical purpose of the mission? To sail over proposed landing sites, take high-resolution images of the topography, and craft together a map that would dictate the plausibility of the suitable landing sites.
Ostensibly, the Prandtl-m craft could be set for a high-altitude balloon test launch on Earth later this year. Two launches have already been approved for funding by the Flight Opportunities program, which is overseen by NASA Armstrong, and will either take place in Tuscon, Ariz., or Tillamook, Ore.
The Prandtl-m's Mars mission is predicted to take place in 2022.
