A small boomerang-shaped aircraft that will go for a test launch later this year could be the first unmanned aerial system to glide over the surface of Mars, if NASA's project comes to fruition. The Prandtl-m prototype's test, one of three in the planning stages, will include a launch from a high-altitude balloon at about 100,000 feet to simulate the Martian atmosphere. It's hoped that the aircraft will ride along on a rover mission slated for 2022-2024 to help survey the Martian landscape. "It would be able to deploy and fly in the Martian atmosphere and glide down and land," Al Bowers,Prandtl-m program manager,said on NASA's website. "The Prandtl-m could overfly some of the proposed landing sites for a future astronaut mission and send back to Earth very detailed high resolution photographic map images that could tell scientists about the suitability of those landing sites."
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/recent-updates/business-military/nasa-developing-unmanned-glider-for-mars-mission