re: that's another kettle of fish, then.
There is already ongoing work of a gas propelled glider that makes repeated hops. In any event you don't have to send back IMAX viewable images directly. IMAX can be post processed created from any serious of nice resolution photagraphs that can be combined to form 3D images. We already have several obiters to relay and MRO will be there soon with quite a good capacity to relay. I don't think it is beyond our capability to fly some image gathering capability down the grand canyons of mars. Agreed this is not a simple chore. But a billion with current technology goes a ways too.