Hovering Autonomous NASA Lander

 awesomeness, news, rockets, science, spacecraft, youtube
Jun 252011
 

Neat! Now… launch the damned thing.

[youtube mz6Bv74uHLc]

 Posted by at 9:50 pm

  3 Responses to “Hovering Autonomous NASA Lander”

  1. Pat Flannery says:
    June 26, 2011 at 9:53 pm

    I dug up some more info on the thing; although the control system is pretty complex, the thing is powered by simple hydrogen peroxide decomposition steam using three constant-thrust pulsed rocket engines on its base for moving up and down, and a fourth one to cancel out Earth’s gravity.
    Aim of this project it to have it ascend to 500 feet altitude, stay there for 60 seconds, and then successfully land.
    A follow-up version will have a more conventional propellant choice on it, generating higher ISP (hydrazine monopropellant or H2O2 and a fuel like kerosene?)
    There is a weird military aspect to the groups involved with the project, although I can’t figure out a direct military use this system’s capabilities would have. Maybe it uses technological inputs from old stuff originally developed for SDI?:
    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lunarquest/robotic/hover_test_4.html

    • admin says:
      June 26, 2011 at 10:08 pm

      > I can’t figure out a direct military use this system’s capabilities would have.

      Easy. Propulsion and divert system for a kinetic kill system. Looking at the video, I’m precisely reminded of the hovering tests of KKVs.

      • Pat Flannery says:
        June 27, 2011 at 10:08 am

        It reminded me of that also, but that technology was developed decades ago and would be combined with some sort of radar or optical homing system.
        It might be something to attach itself to a satellite, but that would require just the small thrusters, not the main engines, unless it uses those to do the final orbital insertion, then switches to the small thrusters for the actual rendezvous.
        Actually, it’s perfectly designed for what they say it can do – land on the Moon, Mars, planetary moons or large asteroids.
        Maybe the idea is that it can lift off from their surface after it’s examined the original landing site and move to other locations on the surface for more work.
        We did move Surveyor 6 a short distance on the lunar surface that way.

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