Mars Airplane 2003 proposal Options

[Paolo]

Hi all
If you have been following Mars exploration for a while, you may remember the proposal to fly a miniature airplane on Marsin 2003 to commemorate the centenary of the Wright bros' first flight.
See for example http://quest.nasa.gov/aero/planetary/MarsAir.html
I am looking for some higher resolution of the images of the unfolding sequence at the top of that article, and I remember seeing them somewhere on the net, but I can't find them any longer. Anybody knows the site, or has higher res versions saved or has the issue of "Air & Space" (December 1999) and can make a scan for me? I had that but I can't find it anymore after I moved...

[vjkane]

I think that the very high resolution cameras on orbiting spacecraft pretty much killed off the appeal of aircraft on Mars from a scientific view. There area a few missions they could do better such as studying remnant magnetism or ground water/ice at high resolution. However, the area they could cover would be small, the design is difficult, and data relay would be a bitch.

I personally always found the idea romantic, though.

[mcaplinger]

I think that the very high resolution cameras on orbiting spacecraft pretty much killed off the appeal of aircraft on Mars from a scientific view.

That must explain why aircraft are never used on Earth for geophysical surveys now that we have satellites.

Our Mars airplane proposals were never primarily about imaging, but about things that were difficult or impossible to do from orbit like electric field and gravimetric sensors. But I agree they are tough missions to justify at our current level of technology, cost, and budget.

[vjkane]

That must explain why aircraft are never used on Earth for geophysical surveys now that we have satellites.

Yeah, but on Earth, you get to reuse the airplane after each flight and can download the data after the safe landing. Just as soon as we open a network of airfields on Mars, I know that planes will be used extensively.

I do agree that there are some good uses for planes on Mars for non-imaging science, but the short life and data relay remain big problems. On earth, there are solar powered planes in development that can essentially remain on station for long periods (using batteries at night). I presume that the lower solar power available at Mars makes this non-viable. If this problem could be overcome, then I think that a plane to explore multiple regions over many days would be a dynamite mission.