I should point that while engineering the skycrane was no doubt very difficult, and provided all sorts of lessons and solutions, that if we wanted to develop autonomous helicopters for use on Earth, the best way to do it is infact to develop autonomous helicopters for use on Earth [1] [2].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_MQ-8_Fire_Scou... [2] http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2012/07/marine-kmax-bea...