LUNAR LANDER CONCEPTS

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LUNAR LANDER CONCEPTS TECHNOLOGIES

• NASA Exploration Strategy Architecture Industry
  Workshop
• U. S. Chamber of Commerce
• August 15, 2007

Chris Moore NASA Headquarters
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Lunar Lander

• Established a Lunar Lander Project Office at JSC
  in April. In-house team is developing initial
  design concept to support requirements
  formulation.
• 4 crew to and from the surface
• Seven days on the surface
• Lunar outpost crew rotation
• Global access capability
• Anytime return to Earth
• Capability to land 16 metric tons of dedicated
  cargo
• Airlock for surface activities
• Descent stage
• Liquid Oxygen / Liquid Hydrogen propulsion
• Ascent stage
• Liquid Oxygen / Liquid Methane propulsion

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Lunar Lander Technology Needs
CH4/O2 main engine and RCS thrusters for ascent
stage
Guidance algorithms and lidar sensors to enable
autonomous precision landing and hazard avoidance.
Lightweight composite structures
Zero boil off cryogenic propellant storage to
enable long duration missions
Deep throttling H2/O2 engine for descent stage
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Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance
Technology (ALHAT)
TERRAIN RELATIVENAVIGATIONFUNCTIONS
De-OrbitCoast
HAZARDDETECTIONAND AVOIDANCEFUNCTIONS
Terrain RelativeNavigation
Crater and SlopeHazard Detection
BrakingBurn
Rock DiscontinuityHazard Detection
Safe SiteSelection
TerminalDescent
Hazard RelativeNavigation
ALHAT systems will use active laser sensors to
image landing sites during descent and maneuver
the lander to avoid obstacles such as craters and
rocks. Precision landing will enable assembly of
the lunar outpost from modular payload elements
that can be landed in close proximity to each
other.
VelocityEstimation
Imaging
Radar
Lidar
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Lander Concepts
Minimum volume ascent module

• Mobile Lander Concept
• 6-legged Lander can roll or walk over rough
  terrain
• Eliminates need to offload hab modules and
  transport across surface to outpost assembly site
• Mobile lander could be used as mini-Winnebago
  with 2500 km range to explore different regions
  of Moon

• LAT 2 Concept
• Centerline minimum volume Ascent Module
• Mid-bay payload slot
• Single LOX/H2 descent engine
• LOX/CH4 ascent and RCS propulsion
• Composite Structure

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Notional Drop Test of Lunar Lander
Objective Demonstrate descent propulsion system
and autonomous precision landing and hazard
avoidance system before Lander PDR in 2011.
Balloon or Helicopter
Half-scale lander
Altitude 10,000 ft
Test descent propulsion system
Test ALHAT system
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Key Questions

• What are the architecture tradeoffs between a
  mobile lander vs. a stationary lander with
  payload offloading and transport?
• What are the architecture tradeoffs between a
  crewed lander capable of carrying habitat modules
  vs. a cargo only lander?
• What are the system tradeoffs between autonomous
  landing vs. piloted landing?
• What types of demonstrations are needed to
  validate lander concepts and technologies?