#NASA’s Project #Morpheus combined a #methane-fueled #rocket #testbed, as well as the autonomous navigation prototype #ALHAT. The man in blue on the right side of the frame is Chirold Epp, the Project Manager for the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology. #ProjectMorpheus, #Chirold Epp, #Prototype, #Photography, #KennedySpaceCenter, #KCS.
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In order for #NASA to test #hardware and #software to allow an #interplanetary #spacecraft to select a landing site amid a field of hazards, it built a “#lunar #hazard field” was built at the end of the Shuttle Landing Facility, creating a #MoonScape in #Florida..
The Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology, ALHAT, was to use #LIDAR to scan the surface and identify safe landing zones and steer a landing spacecraft toward safety and away from danger.
It was placed on the #methane-burning Project #Morpheus vehicle meant to test methane propellants.
Unfortunate Morpheus exploded during testing before #ALHAT could get data, but the experiment was rebuilt. # AutonomousLandingAndHazardAvoidanceTechnology, #KennedySpaceCenter, #KSC, #ShuttleLandingFacility, #ProjectMorpheus, #Landscape, #LandscapePhotography, #Photography, #Photograph, #Photo
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Two groups of #NASA #engineers joined forces for #ProjectMorpheus. A vertical take off and landing #VTVL vehicle fueled by liquid #methane and liquid oxygen #LOX. Another team developed the #ALHAT technology, which would scan the #terrain as a the lander descended, and pick a safe landing site itself.
For testing, a simulated #lunar “hazard field” was made at the end of #KSC / Kennedy Space Centers’s #Shuttle Landing Facility.
#Morpheus was to tested in stages. At first, the vehicle would be tethered and make short vertical hops on the flat landing strip for the #SpaceShuttle. Then it would fly freely, and then freely further downrange but still onto the landing strip, then to a designated safe zone in the simulated #Moon terrain, while ALHAT scanned. Finally, there would be an all-up test and ALHAT would choose the landing site.
Morpheus exploded on its second free flight attempt.
A second vehicle was built and tested successfully.
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/a-little-piece-of-the-moon-in-florida-heron-and-fox.html