[meteorite-list] Successful Test Flights for Mars Landing Technology (ADAPT)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 17:25:35 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201503190025.t2J0PZG9004147_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4514

Successful Test Flights for Mars Landing Technology

Fast Facts:

* ADAPT test system can help a spacecraft divert its course and make a
smooth, pinpoint landing

* Two technology demonstration test flights were completed in California

It's tricky to get a spacecraft to land exactly where you want. That's
why the area where the Mars rover Curiosity team had targeted to land
was an ellipse that may seem large, measuring 12 miles by 4 miles (20
by 7 kilometers).

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
have been developing cutting-edge technologies that would enable spacecraft
to land at a specific location on Mars -- or any other planetary body
-- with more precision than ever before. In collaboration with Masten
Space Systems in Mojave, California, they have recently tested these technologies
on board a high-tech demonstration vehicle called the Autonomous Descent
and Ascent Powered-flight Testbed (ADAPT).

ADAPT is a test system built on Masten's XA-0.1B "Xombie" vertical-launch,
vertical-landing reusable rocket. The Xombie platform provides a good
approximation of Mars-like descent conditions through high-speed descent
rates at low altitudes. Those conditions are difficult to achieve through
conventional flight test platforms. Onboard this rocket, two sophisticated
lander technologies were recently tested: Terrain Relative Navigation
with a sensor called the Lander Vision System (LVS), and the Guidance
for Fuel-Optimal Large Diverts (G-FOLD) algorithm.

"No previous Mars lander has used onboard surface imaging to achieve a
safe and precise touchdown, but a future spacecraft could use LVS and
G-FOLD to first autonomously determine its location and then optimally
fly to its intended landing site," said Nikolas Trawny, ADAPT's principal
investigator at JPL. "All of this happens on board, without human intervention,
and in real time."

ADAPT had two successful test flights, one on Dec. 4, 2014, and the second
on Dec. 9. In both cases, the rocket reached a maximum altitude of 1,066
feet (325 meters) before beginning its descent.

The terrain-relative navigation capability provided by LVS allows Xombie
to precisely determine its position without requiring GPS. To do so, ADAPT
first takes a series of pictures of the terrain below it during descent.
These pictures are then compared to an image of the terrain stored onboard,
allowing the vehicle to autonomously find its position relative to the
landing site. The spacecraft can then use this information to correct
its course to get as close to the targeted landing site as possible within
its capability, and make a smooth, pinpoint landing.

G-FOLD is an algorithm, developed at JPL and at the University of Texas
at Austin, that calculates the optimal path to divert a spacecraft to
a target landing site in real time. For the first time, G-FOLD allows
onboard calculation of divert trajectories that obtain the maximum performance
from every kilogram of propellant.

The combination of LVS and G-FOLD allowed the Xombie rocket to begin to
change the course of its descent at about 623 feet (190 meters) in the
air on December 9. The rocket then flew the newly calculated course to
successfully reach the target landing pad located 984 feet (300 meters)
to the east.

"This represents a huge step forward in our future capabilities for safe
and precise Mars landing, and demonstrates a highly effective approach
for rapid, low-cost validation of new technologies for the entry, descent
and landing of spacecraft," said Chad Edwards, chief technologist of the
Mars Exploration Directorate at JPL. "This same technology has valuable
applications to landing on the moon, asteroids and other space targets
of interest."

NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate is facilitating the tests
via its Flight Opportunities Program managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight
Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages
the ADAPT project and funded the ADAPT payload development. The LVS prototype
was designed, developed and tested by the Mars Technology Development
program of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.


Media Contact

Elizabeth Landau
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6425
Elizabeth.Landau at jpl.nasa.gov

2015-091
Received on Wed 18 Mar 2015 08:25:35 PM PDT