Aerial Drone To Hunt For Life On Mars

astroengine writes "What if the Martian terrain is too rugged for a rover to traverse? How do we study surface features that are too small for an orbiter to resolve? If selected by NASA, the Aerial Regional-Scale Environment Surveyor (ARES) could soar high above the Martian landscape, getting a unique birds-eye view of the Red Planet. Its primary mission is to sniff out potential microbial-life-generating gases like methane, but it would also be an ideal reconnaissance vehicle to find future landing sites for a manned expedition. Prototypes of the rocket-powered drone have been successfully flown here on Earth, so will we see ARES on Mars any time soon?"

first, nuclear waste, now, exhaust gases

[ChipMonk]

Just how badly are we trying to alter the Martian environment, before we even get to walk in it?

UAV to hunt for life on Mars...

[Chris Burke]

And will be carrying a Hellfire missile, just in case said life decides to get uppity.

Or just to make the end-of-life for the UAV much more exciting. Either way.

A letter missing from the acronym

[KDR_11k]

Aerial Regional-Scale Environment Surveyor (ARES)

Even NASA has trolls apparently

ARSES

[CosmicRabbit]

The acronym for Aerial Regional-Scale Environment Surveyor should instead be read as ARSES... Which kinda fits for a mission looking for methane emissions and germs.

Re:first, nuclear waste, now, exhaust gases

[biryokumaru]

Ya, we're just running our A.R.S.E.S. all over it, aren't we?

Important Message from Marvin:

[Anonymous Coward]

You have made me very angry - very angry indeed!

Are they still looking

[ArhcAngel]

Are they finally expanding their search for Bin Laden?

Re:Rocket-powered?

[icebike]

The killer for balloons is a completely different problem, the overall vehicle needs to be less dense than the atmosphere it displaces. Which is just barely possible to do on earth. Not going to work on Mars.

Let me google that for you:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ballons+mars+exploration [lmgtfy.com]