Lunar Lander

Overview

The Von Braun Center for Science & Innovation is leading the implementation of a Lunar Lander Robotic Test Bed (LLTB) in support of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The Test Bed is an innovative facility located on the Redstone Arsenal at NASA’s refurbished Materials Environmental Test Complex (METCO) and will be used to demonstrate and analyze various technologies and components that may be used in robotic space exploration activities. Through a NASA contract, the LLTB is currently supporting test activities associated with the development of future robotic lunar landers.

The LLTB project office was formed in October 2008 and immediately began execution of their first major test activity. Over a short two and half month timeframe, the VCSI team modified a test facility at Marshall Space Flight Center, learned how to operate a hover vehicle obtained from Ames Research Center, and successfully demonstrated facility readiness to support future testing. Follow-on testing was conducted during Jan-Feb, 2009 and the team demonstrated the ability to control the hover vehicle based solely on sensor data derived from “on-vehicle” sensors.

In order to provide more versatile testing opportunities, VCSI put out invitations for bid and entered into a contractual agreement with Teledyne Brown and Orion Propulsion to develop a more advanced cold-fired hover test vehicle than the one used in the first phase of testing. This vehicle was delivered to VCSI on May 1 at a ceremony that was attended by key government and industry officials, including Cong. Robert Aderholt. The contract award for this vehicle was for the development of a robotic lunar lander demonstration vehicle with an integrated propulsion system. The new test article is designed to carry more payload than the vehicle used in earlier testing and is designed with an approximate 50% increase in hover time. With the successful delivery milestone now met, the LLTB Team will focus on integrating a set of engineering avionics and begin hover testing in the late May timeframe at the NASA MSFC METCO Facility.

The LLTB Team is currently reassessing the overall test schedule for 2009 and 2010. A revised plan will likely be in place by the end of May as will a go/no go decision on the development of a hot-fired lunar lander prototype.

The VCSI lunar lander team is comprised of high performing team members from Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC); Teledyne-Brown Engineering (Tec-Masters, Inc); Millennium Engineering & Integration (MEI); BD Systems, and the Marshall Space Flight Center. Rob Franklin of SAIC is the Project Lead for VCSI. Julie Basler is the overall NASA MSFC International Lunar Lander Project Lead and Brian Mulac oversees the Lunar Lander Test Bed Project. The entire team is co-located at the National Space Science and Technology Center on the UAH Campus.

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