The “Mighty Eagle,” a NASA robotic prototype lander,
is soaring high again for a series of tests being conducted at NASA’s Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Since its last round of tests in 2011,
the Mighty Eagle team has made significant updates to the guidance controls on
the lander’s camera furthering its autonomous capabilities.
The three-legged "green" lander is fueled
by 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide and receives its commands from an onboard
computer that activates its onboard thrusters to carry it to a controlled
landing using a pre-programmed flight profile. It is 4 feet tall and 8 feet in
diameter and, when fueled, weighs 700 pounds.
In this series of tests, which will continue through
September, the lander prototype will autonomously fly and hover at 30 feet for
two tests, and up to 100 feet for another two tests, and then move sideways, to
safely land 30 feet away from the launch pad. The test demonstrates what it
will take to perform the final descent of an autonomous controlled landing on
the moon, asteroids or other airless bodies.
Keywords – NASA’s Mighty Eagle Robotic prototype
Lander flies again at Marshall.
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