How NASA’s Mars flight could transform drones on Earth

NASA engineers had to remotely update the software on the drone earlier this month after a series of glitches.

Dr Flannery said now there had been a successful test flight, mission planners would likely get more “adventurous” with their future flights.

In addition to showing what was possible on the surface of another world, Ingenuity’s flight also demonstrated what was possible back on Earth.

“The systems that we’re testing on Mars right now are the same systems and challenges we face on Earth,” he said.

“For example, if you want to have an autonomous vehicle which can analyse mineral deposits, an autonomous UAV that’s capable of analysing rocks like the Ingenuity is the sort of thing you’d want.

“With space exploration,…