Scientists in Switzerland are developing an ultra-lightweight plane which could soar through the skies of Mars in about a decade's time, with the help of balsa wood and model aircraft know-how.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) chose the small solar-powered, "intelligent", glider as a low-cost but high technology project for the European Space Agency's (ESA) "Startiger III" technology programme, scientist Samir Bouabdallah said Wednesday.
The group is studying the feasibility of a solar-powered aircraft with a wing span of up to three metres (nine feet) and weighing a few kilogram's, which could be delivered to the Red Planet by a space probe.
"Sky-sailor" would fly perpetually on its own in the low density and low gravity of the Martian atmosphere.
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