Interesting video from ESA

[Rocket_Col]

Interesting from ESA
http://www.space.com/26475-mars-dropship-quadcopter-could-land-rovers-video-flight-test.html

[John A]

Uh, the Martian atmosphere is around 1% that of Earth';s.........

[n506]

No problem... just put rockets on in place of props... sorted!

Cool... now why is that Naza taking so long to get a GPS lock on Mars?

[Hands0n]

Uh, the Martian atmosphere is around 1% that of Earth';s.........

Precisely.

What are they trying to prove? The concept of a lander has been done to death, surely?  A multi-rotor isn';t going to fly in the Martian atmosphere, such as it is. Rockets? Makes for a single-shot, and like I said, thats been done to death, surely.

[n506]

Rockets? Makes for a single-shot, and like I said, thats been done to death, surely.

Perhaps utilisation of multirotors to practice the scenarios where rockets would otherwise only give one shot? Allow for trials of fast winching systems that can drop the robotic systems without spending a fortune on rockets? Or just spending grant cash on playing with multirotors...

[Desmoboy]

As an employee of Airbus i would go with playing with expensive toys as the likely option

[John A]

http://youtu.be/a4YqNoLkmxE

To paraphrase NASA...."....and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we do that....."