What a day to be alive, all that we used to see in cartoons are turning out to be a reality. A self controlled, solar powered helicopter just flew on Mars. The Ingenuity helicopter by NASA made headlines two days back when it flew for just 23 seconds on Mars.
You may ask what’s the big deal. The big deal is that this helicopter is not controlled by any human. The helicopter makes its own decisions backed by algorithms. It was supposed to fly weeks ago but was delayed. It gets its power from the sun. The helicopter has two rotators because of Mars’ extremely thin atmosphere. It rotates at a very high speed, much higher than the helicopters back here on earth. With that high speed rotation it creates an atmosphere around it which helps it to fly. Luckily the Red Planet has only one third of Earth’s gravity which helps the helicopter to lift easily.
Why is it a bad news for us?
The humans have a history of using scientific innovations towards humanity’s own doom instead of using it to better the future. Take Project Manhattan as an example. They will use this technology in wars and the Government will release a hefty amount from its budget in the name of national security. The Governments hide behind the veil of national security but the actual agenda is exploitation and expansion.
The United States of America is already using drones in wars which are controlled by humans back in Pentagon. But we are not far from finding out that the 80 people who recently got killed in Jordan by a robotic helicopter made its own decision. The wars will be completely fought by machines and robots and I am scared. How will they differentiate between a civilian and an enemy? What if they have their faces covered with masks.
So does it mean there will be job losses in military? I will leave that for you to decide. Who cares anyway, nobody wants wars. It’s always the rich and the centuries old business families who gain from wars.
Now let’s take a look at the flight made by Ingenuity helicopter. The video below was taken by NASA’s Perseverance Rover.
How can this technology help?
- Deliver food and medicines in floods and war torn areas. No human intervention needed. The moment a flood hits, activate these robots and they will identify and deliver food and medicines to those who are in need.
- Help fight forest fire. We all know, forest fires gets caught in a specific season. Use these robots to surveillance the forest and act on its own to neutralise the situation. If not neutralise, send the information back to the forest department. No doubt this can help curb poaching too.
- Help with traffic systems. Even though satellites are already doing it, they are not efficient enough. With this robot you can approach the car/truck that created the blockage and even give a solution to the driver on how to move his car to clear the bottleneck.
- Needless to mention how this robot can help us in this covid era. Contactless delivery of essential items.
I would like to congratulate NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on this huge milestone for humanity. Wright Brothers would have been so proud.