MORE ON MARS: Leonard David has a cool piece on an experimental Mars aircraft.

UPDATE: Reader John Allison sends this link with more information on similar work being done by hobbyists. Yep, hobbyists. And in a (sort of) related development, here’s a fairly cool Los Angeles Times article on Micro-Aircraft. But catch this rather dumb subhead: “The laws of aerodynamics are a big obstacle for designers.” Uh, yeah. Why, without having to worry about those pesky laws of aerodynamics, we could design flying bricks powered by thistledown. . . . Do these guys even read what they write?