NASA’s SPLICE navigation payload, flown on a drone over California, simulated lunar descent and hazard avoidance as the agency moves toward autonomous landings on the Moon and Mars.
NASA’s SPLICE navigation payload, flown on a drone over California, simulated lunar descent and hazard avoidance as the agency moves toward autonomous landings on the Moon and Mars.
Drone over California, simulated descent. Cool demo. Now show me a real touchdown with a crater the size of a parking lot and no ground crew to yell “clear.” Until NASA lands something autonomously on the Moon or Mars and it works first try, “safe” is just a press-release adjective. Also, hazard avoidance in a Californian field full of cooperative shrubbery and no dust, radiation, or 2-second comms lag tells me very little.