They concluded that data provided by the navigation system was inaccurate leading to a chain of events that caused its ultimate demise. One of the biggest problems it seems is that the terrain was smooth leading to a lack of landmarks during Flight 72.

[–] roofuskit 25 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Mars robot crashes due to lack of obstacles

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

Can't show ingenuity if there's no challenge

[–] Cocodapuf 3 points 3 days ago

Scott Manley described this as "the terrain was simply too bland and featureless".

I like that it sounds more like a slam on Mars' terrain. Your dunes are so lame man, I literally can't even fly over them any more...

[–] Blaster_M 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So basically, they needed a GPWS on the copter.

[–] yesman 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

As funny as it would be to make "bitching Betty" the fist astronaut on Mars, you've got a pretty tight weight and power budget to add a whole system to prevent this one outcome.