MELOS

Japan's aerospace agency (JAXA) started to develop the mission concept on 2008, when MELOS stood for "Mars Explorations with Landers and Orbiters" or "Mars Exploration with Lander-Orbiter Synergy" which included several landers to be deployed simultaneously, that were to study meteorology and atmospheric gas escape.

Each of the four stationary landers would have been deployed on pre-determined landing sites and perform different measurements:[2][4] By 2015, MELOS was down-scaled to a rover mission for an engineering demonstration,[1] and possibly an aircraft.

As of July 2015, the concept proposal includes a robotic rover whose primary objective is an engineering demonstration for long-range roving.

[1][6] It would have a wing span of 1.2 m, mass of 2.1 kg and would be released at an altitude of 16,400 feet (5 km) during the entry and landing event.

[1] Since the mission aims for access to a "special region", strict planetary protection sterilization protocols must be followed to prevent forward contamination of Earth microbes to Mars.