Chinese Scientists Working on Mars Drone That Flies Faster Than Sound

It would be able to travel five times the speed of sound.

Drone Zone

Scientists in China have created a proposal for a hypersonic aircraft to travel between future Mars colonies. 

The team has developed a concept for a drone that weighs 1,100 pounds and could travel at five times the speed of sound, according to the South China Morning Post, with a cruising altitude of 5,000 meters. This is all still in its very early stages, though, and is expected to take several more decades yet to complete — if ever.

“The first hypersonic flight on Mars may not happen within 30 years because many technical issues need to be solved,” said Xu Xu, a research at Beihang University on the team working on the drone. 

Martian UPS

Another wrinkle: It’s unclear whether the craft will travel more than the speed of sound on Earth or on Mars. On the Red Planet, the speed of sound is around 540 mph, whereas Earth is roughly 760 mph, according to NASA. Both are pretty fast, though.

Part of the goal…