Ugh, what a confusing mess; talk about burying the lede. The important program development here isn't the quadcopter at all. The quadcopter is just a test mule

Ugh, what a confusing mess; talk about burying the lede. The important program development here isn't the quadcopter at all. The quadcopter is just a test mule for a new navigation system that uses GPS, inertial guidance, and vision-based systems in conjunction to navigate an environment. In particular, the vision-based system was developed from scratch in about 8-months. The ESA website has an article as well, but it also loses the focus of the new developments in favor of making the story more "newsworthy". The fact that the quadcopter is a test mule is never pointed out directly, so all the laymen reading the article are left with the impression that the ESA plans to send quadcopters to Mars at some point. http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/Dropship_offers_safe_landings_for_Mars_rovers http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/Dropship_offers...