For over a decade, NASA has been found saying that it has plans to send airplanes to the Red Planet. It now seems that there are chances that the idea might turn into a reality. It could happen that a folded-up glider could take a piggyback ride to reach Mars in the 2022-2024 time-frame.

As per the plan, when the glider will be sent to Mars then the plane's fuselage and its 2-foot-wide wings will remain folded inside a 3U CubeSat receptacle. Along with this, there will also be a satellite.

Al Bowers, NASA Armstrong's chief scientist, said, "The aircraft would be part of the ballast that would be ejected from the aeroshell that takes the Mars rover to the planet. It would be able to deploy and fly in the Martian atmosphere, and glide down and land".

There are high expectations from the glider and it could take high-resolution images of the terrain and could also transmit pictures back to earth. The images in turn can prove beneficial for scientists as they can decide the landing for a future astronaut mission.

This year, a prototype known as Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars will be tested. As per scientists, the prototype will be sent up either from Tucson in Arizona or from Tillamook in Oregon and then will be released at an altitude of 100,000 feet.

That's not all, as another prototype will also be tested. Bowers said that it will be seen as whether or not the prototype completes a 450,000-foot drop. If it does then there are good expectations from the project that it can be presented at NASA headquarters for permission.