As NASA aims to launch a space exploration expedition on Mars in the 2020s, the space agency is preparing to test foldable glider drones that could conduct aerial surveillance for possible landing locations on the Red Planet.

Aside from the fact that sending manned missions to space is expensive and conceivably dangerous, it is also more difficult to get financial support. Drones, however, are relatively inexpensive to build, launch and are expendable. That's why it's really unsurprising if NASA have opted to use drones for future aerial survey missions in space.

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Despite being such an ambitious move, NASA is determined to launch drones, which could be the first man-made object to take flight in the skies of Mars. Under the new program and currently under construction is the Prandtl-m (Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars), a prototype of an aircraft that could accompany the Mars 2020 rover mission carried as ballast with another lander if testing is successful, National Monitor has learned.

The Prandtl-m glider drone measures 24 inches across its wingspan and weighing about 2.6 pounds on Earth. According to Inquisitr, the drone will weigh just a single pound on Mars because of the planet's lower gravity, which could give it an effective range of roughly 20 miles, if it were deployed 2,000 feet above the surface of Mars.

Capable of self-correcting its altitude during descent, Prandtl-m could also unfold itself from a 3U or three-unit CubeSat and glide toward the surface, taking aerial snaps of key sites. A CubeSat is a box measuring about four inches to a side, a 3U CubeSat is three such units stacked together.

Meanwhile, the first test of the glider drone, which looks like a sophisticated boomerang, will come later this year when a prototype will be released from a high altitude balloon at 100,000 feet, a height which will replicate Martian atmospheric conditions.

Moreover, at least one and possibly two additional test flights are planned for the near future. Engadget reported a second flight will take place in 2016, which will see Prandtl-m fly for as long as five hours until it lands on Earth. While a potential third flight will be launched to simulate the final plan of its takeoff from a CubeSat.

In addition to the rovers and glider drones, NASA will test a robotic submarine to explore Saturn's Moon Titan, a solar powered plane to explore Venus, a robotic squid and a helicopter airplane hybrid. The space agency is also planning to launch small helicopter drones to accompany the Mars 2020 rover and conduct aerial surveillance for it.

If the tests are successful, the Prandtl-m glider drone could survey landing sites for the eventual manned mission on Mars. And if in any case the Prandtl-m ends up on a Mars mission, these lightweight and inexpensive drones are definitely going to boost the ability of several space agencies to broaden its exploration of the solar system.

TagsNASA, Mars, drones