NASA has come with a boomerang-shaped aircraft to look for potential landing sites for future manned mission to the red planet. NASA has planned the launch of the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m, from a high altitude balloon later this year.

The release of the Prandtl-m will take place at 100,000 feet altitude. The release of the aircraft at such a height provides it the similar flight conditions of Martian atmosphere, said Al Bowers, NASA Armstrong chief scientist and Prandtl-m programme manager.

The tests are meant to determine how the aircraft works. This would also pave the way for engineers to do modifications so that it can fold and deploy from a 3U CubeSat in the aeroshell of a future Mars rover.

"It would be able to deploy and fly in the Martian atmosphere and glide down and land. The Prandtl-m could overfly some of the proposed landing sites for a future astronaut mission and send back to Earth very detailed high resolution photographic map images that could tell scientists about the suitability of those landing sites", said Bowers.

The Prandtl-m would emerge from its host, deploy and begin its mission after entering the Martian atmosphere. The flight time will be around 10 minutes.

One of many key features of Prandtl-m aircraft is its ability to fly in the Martian atmosphere and glide down and land. In addition, it will also identify some of the proposed landing sites for a future astronaut mission. The aircraft will beam back to earth very detailed high resolution photographic map images to help scientists learn about the suitability of landing sites.