The Ingenuity helicopter got its new software. And Perseverance-rover found an organic-looking chemical compound from Mars.

NASA:s Ingenuity helicopter can use to research how to navigate without the GPS. 

The Ingenuity helicopter flies over Mars, and one of the problems with this kind of system is simple: how to navigate without the GPS? There are many possibilities for how to replace traditional GPS by using some other systems. One system what that robot helicopter can use in that kind of operation is TAINS (Terrair contour matching and Aided Intertial navigation system). The camera in the helicopter takes images from its route. 

And when the helicopter needs to return. The computer compiles images that the helicopter takes with new images. The camera sends that data to the flight-control computer. The inertial or gyroscope navigation can support return. 

The gyroscope can record the entire flight route and then the helicopter must just drive that route backward. The TAINS system is a combination of TERCOM (Terrain contour matching) and gyroscope navigation. This kind of navigation system is used in cruise missiles, but it also can use in other aerial vehicles. 

Things like robot recon planes can also use the TAINS system. The recon plane can fly a certain route. And its digital cameras store the entire mission. Also, the TAINS system can control unmanned attack aircraft. The point where the navigation system orders the drone or cruise missile to dive into the target can program that way. The aircraft releases a smart weapon at that point. 

But there is another way to locate objects and navigate by using satellites than some regular GPS systems. The robot or manned vehicle can send the laser ray to the photo-recon satellite. 

The photo-recon satellite will see the location of the laser pointer from the image. The AI or human operator can plan the route for the robot helicopter. Or drive the helicopter to the wanted position by using the remote control. The helicopter can search for interesting points for the Mars-rovers. 

Robot helicopters can use laser spectrometers in larger areas than robot cars. The helicopter can also use its laser as the laser drill. And land at the wanted position and then take samples from deeper than just the surface.

"This Perseverance rover Mastcam-Z enhanced color photo mosaic shows a butte near Jezero crater informally dubbed “Kodiak” by the rover team. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS; edited by Jim Bell/ASU" (ScitechDaily.com/NASA’s Perseverance Rover Discovers Possible Organic Compounds in Mars Crater Rocks)

Perseverance-Rover found possible organic molecules from one crater on Mars.  

 

New findings from planet Mars are making this kind of combination interesting.  The Perseverance rover found organic-looking chemical compounds in one single crater. These kinds of findings are very interesting things. And if those organic chemical compounds are truly organic they should be found all over the Red planet. If the organic-based material is found only in one or two single areas and if there are some fossils. 

Or maybe, sleeping bacteria that are not from Earth. That thing opens new roads for cosmology. And search for extraterrestrial life forms. If there are Mars-based bacteria only in Valles Marineris canyon. That proves that extraterrestrial lifeforms can be very local. And even if the planet seems hostile there could be places where life is possible. 

But there is one interesting thing. If those bacteria are from Earth, what carried them to Mars? Or what if the bacteria fossils were found in only one crater? There is a needed DNA (RNA) or genome sample to confirm that the pill-looking structures are remnants of the bacteria. And there is the possibility that the UV radiation terminated the genome and internal structure of those proto-bacteria remnants. 

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-completes-first-flight-with-new-navigation-software/

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-perseverance-rover-discovers-possible-organic-compounds-in-mars-crater-rocks/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERCOM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valles_Marineris