About one hundred years ago, in 1903, human flight on Earth began
with the Wright Brothers' epic flight at Kitty Hawk. Today, scientists and
engineers hope to fly a Mars airplane sometime in the next decade.
Current research is underway to design an airplane that could navigate on
its own without human pilots. These airplanes would be able to gather
better images of the surface and cover more territory than current
orbiter or rover technologies allow.
Because the Martian atmosphere is so thin, taking off from the
ground would require very big wings or a very fast take-off. One
solution to this problem is to have the airplane drop off an entry
vehicle as it is coming into the Martian sky. As the plane drops off, the
wings would unfold and it would start flying, powered either by
batteries or by gliding through the air. A likely place to fly airplanes
would be in valleys or other interesting places where there is a lot to
see over great distances.
Although this flight would be relatively short (less than an hour), and
shorter than a balloon flight, an airplane is
more controllable and can be directed to closely approach areas of
scientific interest. To receive even more data from an airplane,
engineers are also engaged in further research that will give them
insight into how to make a Mars airplane stay aloft for longer periods of time.