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Mars Exploration Using Sailplanes
- rektide 4y agoX-Plane has had a great write-up on winged flight on Mars since 2000. Everytime I hear about Mars flight I think about this. https://www.x-plane.com/adventures/mars.html https://www.x-plane.com/adventures/mars.html The idea that Mars might have complex enough atmosphere for finding updrafts is interesting, not something I'd heard before. The pitch of building something super lightweight is definitely interesting. I tend to think we don't have a lot of experience building AI powered soaring systems, but that's probably not a huge barrier. From the intro of their pitch: > The absence of a propulsion system, allowing for a compact form factor, means the sailplanes can be packaged into CubeSats and deployed as secondary payloads at a relatively low cost; providing scientific data over locations inaccessible by current landers and rovers.