Off-the-shelf hardware is usable, but instead of smartphone CPUs one must use the so-called AE (automotive-enhanced) variants of the same ARM cores that have been used in smartphones.

The automotive variants allow the use of multiple redundant cores, which check each other for errors. This would allow a much better performance than NASA gets today from a Snapdragon, due to being forced to run multiple times each computation, then to verify that the same results have obtained.

There are off-the-shelf redundant CPUs of this kind, designed for use in cars and other vehicles, i.e. for a goal much closer of what NASA needs than smartphone CPUs.

The design of the electronics for the Mars helicopter was a very low-effort project, because too many people were skeptical about its chances of success. In other circumstances, it could have been done much better.