Ever since the project began in 2020, there loomed an idea of this project to set the groundworks for an interplanetary bound Aerial Vehicle to be tested in the Earth’s stratosphere. With the recent successful flight of the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity in April 2021, our team chose to change the project's focus to chase this goal.

Our mission profile from the get-go included a sounding rocket as our launcher. The rocket would house our payload which is a folded Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and deploy it at a target altitude. The UAV would then free-fall till it’s reached its target deployment altitude where it unfolds its wings and begins its flight. This mission profile is very similar to a Mars bound aircraft, isn't it? 

Not including the several month-long coasting phase from Earth to Mars, the phases of rocket, entry, descent, and deployment can be tested here on Earth with a single sounding rocket launch. The only caveat: we need a rocket 0that can launch us above 50km altitude.