Lunar Lander prototype

NASA's Lunar Lander Development Project located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., successfully completed the final flight in a test series of a new robotic lander prototype by free-flying
the vehicle to a record 100-foot altitude at the Redstone Test Center's propulsion test facility on the
U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Data from this test series will aid in the design and
development of a new generation of small, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of performing
science and exploration research on the surface of the moon or other airless bodies in the solar
system, such as asteroids or the planet Mercury.

Since early October, the Robotic Lander Development Project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
in Huntsville, Ala., has subjected the lander prototype to a series of more complex outdoor flight tests
maneuvers. The team steadily increased the lander's flight profile, starting by hovering Mighty Eagle at
3 feet, then 30 feet and finally today's record 100-foot flight test.

Mighty Eagle is a three-legged prototype that resembles an actual flight lander design. It is 4 feet tall
and 8 feet in diameter and weighs 700 pounds when fueled with 90 percent hydrogen peroxide.
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Lunar
• Lander
• prototype
• robotic