NASA wants to send a robotic plane to study Mars

It is the ARES (Aerial Regional-Scale Environmental Surveyor) - NASA's new plan: a rocket-powered, robotic plane that screams over the Martian landscape at more than 450 miles per hour, exposing hundreds of miles of unexplored country. It will spend its two hours surveying nearly 1,000 miles of Mars, taking atmospheric measurements, looking for signs of water, collecting chemical sensing data, and studying crustal magnetism.
"Enveloped in an aeroshell similar to the ones that deployed the rovers, ARES would detach from a carrier craft about 12 hours from the Martian surface. At about 20 miles up, the aeroshell would open, ARES would extend its folded wings and tail, and the rockets would fire. It sounds somewhat complicated, but compared with actually landing package full of sensitive scientific instruments on the surface deploying ARES is relatively simple."