ESA Shows Off Quadcopter Landing Concept For Mars Rovers 104
coondoggie writes Taking a page from NASA's rocket powered landing craft from its most recent Mars landing mission, the European Space Agency is showing off a quadcopter that the organization says can steer itself to smoothly lower a rover onto a safe patch of the rocky Martian surface. The ESA said its dropship, known as the StarTiger's Dropter is indeed a customized quadcopter drone that uses a GPS, camera and inertial systems to fly into position, where it then switches to vision-based navigation supplemented by a laser range-finder and barometer to lower and land a rover autonomously.
GPS on Mars (Score:5, Funny)
Really, are you sure it isn't Galileo?
European Probes (Score:4, Funny)
Being a European probe, once landed it will open a small cafe serving croissants and excellent espresso.
Re:European Probes (Score:5, Funny)
Being a European probe, once landed it will ...
Moan and bitch about Spirit & Opportunity spying on it, while in turn spying on economically valuable sectors of Spirit & Opportunity.
Re:GPS on Mars (Score:5, Funny)
a customized quadcopter drone that uses a GPS, camera and inertial systems to fly into position .....
Yup, hate to break it to you rocket scientists at NASA, but there is a slight flaw in this design for use on Mars.