Lunar Lander Test Rig

Canon PowerShot S100

ƒ/2

5.2 mm

1/30

200

A quad ‘copter from Chris Anderson, with Go-Pro underbody gimbal and a sensor array for landing that is so very clever in the repurposing of consumer hardware to replace expensive and heavy radar units like they used on Apollo. A great way to test the control algorithms for automated landing. Like Apollo, the landing would occur at lunar daybreak (maximum shadows for surface feature contrast, and a 14 day window of solar flux).

The tech challenge I am working on is how to survive the 14 day lunar night at -150°C. Batteries freeze rather destructively. The only Apollo instruments to survive the night had nuclear batteries (like Curiosity). I am thinking Solar Junction solar cells, Everspin rad-hard/soft-error-immune MRAM, and a super cap or maybe LiIon electrolyte from eSionic which might survive the temp cycling. Or perhaps a Solicore solid electrolyte from ORNL. Has anyone tested the other elements (processor, PCB interconnect) through those extreme temp cycles?

Part of a very fun update tour of Moon Express at NASA Ames today. Oh, and there is a very cool design element whereby they use an optical mouse sensor instead of a landing radar (see below).

5 responses to “Lunar Lander Test Rig”

jurvetson

Dec 19, 2012 at 6:41 am

and we will be stress testing at home…

(an amazing assemblage of technology – LiPON batteries, ultrasonic range finding, streaming HD mini cam, a "free" iPhone/iPad control interface (with multi-axis MEMS accelerometers) as the remote control, lightweight RF band. We all dreamed of this as kids, but now it’s real… I am SO jealous of their childhood… and so I am really trying to extend mine… =)

Back to MoonExpress… replace the propellers with thrusters and the spacecraft is functionally similar:

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neo99

Dec 19, 2012 at 2:03 pm

So cool!
Batteries are an issue, but as for the electronics, if they’re in an closed enclosure and on, I imaging that their own heat generation would keep them warm enough to avoid extreme temperature stress.

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js.brain

Dec 19, 2012 at 2:13 pm

Very interesting
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Spaceaholic.com

Dec 19, 2012 at 9:17 pm

Thats a cool setup…we are looking at adapting a similar configuration for search and rescue application here in southern arizona.

The lunar lander test bed featured in the shot above uses mono-propellant engines burning a green fuel (hydrogen peroxide) across a catalyst bed.

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jurvetson

Dec 20, 2012 at 4:57 am

yes, no bipropellants at NASA Ames…

Here’s one very cool detail: Remember when Neil Armstrong took over for the autopilot on lunar landing? (of course you do!) The radar was a notorious problem during the LM development and testing. It’s also large and heavy. For the Moon Express lunar lander, they are going to use an optical mouse camera instead. Pull the optical module from a Logitech mouse, add a thumb-sized wide angle lens to take the focal point out, and voila – x,y,z position and vector tracking with off the shelf optics and firmware. It’s a tiny module on the side facing the fellow in the picture.

Here’s the bonus story: the digital image correlation firmware built into the optical mouse was a spinoff technology from the military for target tracking. Desktop surfaces, when lit at a grazing angle by a light emitting diode, cast distinct shadows that resemble a hilly terrain lit at sunset. Now, that commercialized technology is retro-repurposed by a lunar lander startup company to guide their lunar lander at daybreak on the moon… and coming full circle to the original military use case. Seems sublimely surreal.

And if you like quad copters, I hope you have seen Vijay’s TED video

Here are some photos of him at TED this year:

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Lunar Lander Test Rig

5 responses to “Lunar Lander Test Rig”

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