NASA's Morpheus Project has developed and tested a prototype planetary lander capable of vertical takeoff and landing, that is designed to serve as a testbed for advanced spacecraft technologies. The lander vehicle, propelled by a LOX/Methane engine and sized to carry a 500kg payload to the lunar surface, provides a platform for bringing technologies from the laboratory into an integrated flight system at relatively low cost. Morpheus onboard software is autonomous from ignition all the way through landing, and is designed to be capable of executing a variety of flight trajectories, with onboard fault checks and automatic contingency responses. The Morpheus 1.5A vehicle performed 26 integrated vehicle test flights including hot-fire tests, tethered tests, and two attempted freeflights between April 2011 and August 2012. The final flight of Morpheus 1.5A resulted in a loss of the vehicle. In September 2012, development began on the Morpheus 1.5B vehicle, which subsequently followed a similar test campaign culminating in free-flights at a simulated planetary landscape built at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. This paper describes the integrated test campaign, including successes and setbacks, and how the system design for handling faults and failures evolved over the course of the project.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Morpheus Vertical Test Bed Flight Testing


    Contributors:
    J Hart (author) / J Devolites (author)

    Publication date :

    2014


    Size :

    13 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Morpheus Vertical Test Bed Flight Testing

    Hart, Jeremy / Devolites, Jennifer | NTRS | 2014


    Morpheus lander testing campaign

    Hart, Jeremy J. / Mitchell, Jennifer D. | IEEE | 2012


    Morpheus GNC Development and Testing

    T. P. Crain / T. Brady | NTIS | 2011



    Morpheus Lander Testing Campaign

    J. J. Hart / J. D. Mitchell | NTIS | 2011