Robotic refueling is challenging. Before a satellite leaves the ground, technicians fill its fuel tank through a valve that's then triple-sealed and covered with a protective blanket, designed never to be accessed again. RRM paves the way for a future robotic servicing mission by demonstrating that a remote-controlled robot can overcome these obstacles to service and refuel a satellite on orbit.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology
Autonomous is nearly a household word. We hear about autonomous cars, military drones and robots. But what about spacecraft?
NASA is working on that -- technology to autonomously land a spacecraft on Moon, Mars or even an asteroid. It's called the Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT.
ALHAT gives a landing craft the ability to detect and avoid obstacles such as craters, rocks and slopes and land safely and precisely on a surface. The project is led by Johnson Space Center (JSC) and supported by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Langley Research Center.
To ensure its design capabilities, the ALHAT instrumentation was put on a NASA Huey helicopter followed by a completion of 12 flight tests – starting at Langley and finishing at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Helicopter tests allow researchers to test the functionality of ALHAT as an integrated system in a flight environment.
In other words, ALHAT will provide the pilots with on board automated guidance, navigation and control software, which gives them the ability to precisely and safely land.
"Overall, the integrated system on the helicopter worked just as we had hoped" said systems engineer, Kevin Kempton. "The data sets that have been generated are by far the most realistic data we have ever gotten from the ALHAT system."
The next ALHAT flight tests will be on a vertical test bed called Morpheus which will demonstrate autonomous landing on an imitated lunar surface.
Read more on http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/alhat_uh-1h.html
NASA is working on that -- technology to autonomously land a spacecraft on Moon, Mars or even an asteroid. It's called the Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology, or ALHAT.
ALHAT gives a landing craft the ability to detect and avoid obstacles such as craters, rocks and slopes and land safely and precisely on a surface. The project is led by Johnson Space Center (JSC) and supported by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Langley Research Center.
To ensure its design capabilities, the ALHAT instrumentation was put on a NASA Huey helicopter followed by a completion of 12 flight tests – starting at Langley and finishing at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Helicopter tests allow researchers to test the functionality of ALHAT as an integrated system in a flight environment.
In other words, ALHAT will provide the pilots with on board automated guidance, navigation and control software, which gives them the ability to precisely and safely land.
"Overall, the integrated system on the helicopter worked just as we had hoped" said systems engineer, Kevin Kempton. "The data sets that have been generated are by far the most realistic data we have ever gotten from the ALHAT system."
The next ALHAT flight tests will be on a vertical test bed called Morpheus which will demonstrate autonomous landing on an imitated lunar surface.
Read more on http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/alhat_uh-1h.html
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