NASA is testing a new lander

in #space8 years ago


"Powerful eagle» (Mighty Eagle), a prototype of a new module of the landing of NASA, once again soared above the ground in a series of tests, carried out at the Center for NASA space flights in Huntsville, Alabama.

Since the last series of tests in 2011, the team "Powerful eagle" has made significant improvements in the control of the direction of camera movement device, thereby expanding its wireless operation. Trёhnogy "green" lander works 90% on pure hydrogen peroxide and receives its commands from the onboard computer, installed on the machine activating thrusters for product controlled landing using a pre-programmed flight characteristics. It is about 120 centimeters in height and 240 cm in diameter and, when filled, weighs approximately 317 kilograms.

In this series of tests, which will continue throughout the entire month of September, the machine prototype will take off and soar automatically 90 centimeters above the ground in two of the trials, and at a height of up to three meters in the other two tests, and then fly off to the side to safe to land almost a meter away from the place of take-off.

These tests are designed to demonstrate how the new device will carry out an autonomous landing on the moons of the planets, asteroids, and other bodies in our solar system.
Source: http://www.astro.ru/