NASA 'Mighty Eagle' Test Flight - Video

The Mighty Eagle, NASA's robotic prototype lander managed out of NASA"s Marshall Space Flight Center, recently completed a test series to monitor its systems functionality after coming out of winter storage.

This latest series included a test flight that was recorded by the Quad-Copter—a small vehicle also developed at Marshall that was equipped with a video camera allowing for never-before-seen footage of the Mighty Eagle.

The Mighty Eagle, nicknamed after one of the characters in the popular Angry Birds game, is a three-legged prototype vehicle.

It is 4 feet tall, 8 feet in diameter and weighs about 700 pounds when fueled. It is a green vehicle, fueled by 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide, and is guided by an onboard computer that activates the thrusters to power the craft's movements.

"We were approached by the Mighty Eagle team to film the vehicle in flight, and we thought it would be a great collaboration," said Garrick Merrill, a member of the Aero-M team and a computer engineer in the Space Systems Department at Marshall.

"It gave us an opportunity to test the copter in a flight situation, and we were really pleased with the results. It really was a win-win situation for both teams—giving us both important data we can use on future flights." 

The Quad-Copter is an achievement in itself. The vehicle was designed and built by the Aero-M team at Marshall as part of the 2012 Unmanned Aerial Systems, or UAS, competition between various NASA centers.

The Marshall team was made up of young engineers from across the center who were tasked with designing a vehicle that could perform an autonomous search and rescue mission to locate people after a small plane crash.

The Quad-Copter is built with off-the-shelf, hobbyist-grade parts and uses an open-source flight computer.

The initial design of the vehicle uses a two-megapixel IP camera, but for the Mighty Eagle flights the IP camera was removed and a GoPro video camera was attached to provide high-definition video.

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Nasa Robotic Lander "Mighty Eagle" - First Free Flight Test

Mighty Eagle during free flight. Credit: NASA/MSFC/Dennis Olive

NASA's robotic lander Mighty Eagle completed a successful free flight test September 5.

The prototype, using its onboard autonomous flight software, moved to an altitude of 100 feet, found its target and descended gently to a controlled landing.

The craft is named after a character from the popular Angry Birds game, and is a test bed for technologies that may be used to build robotic landers for the Moon, asteroids and other destinations in our Solar System.

"The Mighty Eagle had a great flight, fulfilling the objectives we had for this test - finding and landing on its target using a closed-loop system," said Dr Greg Chavers, lead engineer for the project.

Marshall Space Flight Center engineers Logan Kennedy, right, and Adam Lacock check out the lander prototype. Credit: NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton

After a series of tethered flights during 2011 and 2012, the Mighty Eagle had its first "free" flight on August 8, 2012.

That test met with its targets and was followed by another successful untethered flight on August 16 when the lander hovered at an altitude of about 30 feet, identified its target landing site 21 feet away, moved sideways and descended safely.

The test flight lasted 32 seconds.

An infrared view of the "Mighty Eagle" taking off from the pad. (NASA/MSFC)

Read more about the NASA Mighty Eagle here, at the Lunar Quest mission website.

NASA Mighty Eagle Takes Flight - Video Gallery

The "Mighty Eagle," a NASA robotic prototype lander, had a successful first untethered flight Aug. 8 at the Marshall Center. During the 34-second flight, the Mighty Eagle soared and hovered at 30 feet, moved sideways, looked for its target and safely landed on the launchpad. 

Credit: NASA/MSFC

The "Mighty Eagle," a NASA robotic prototype lander, is soaring high again for a series of tests being conducted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Since its last round of tests in 2011, the Mighty Eagle team has made significant updates to the guidance controls on the lander's camera, furthering its autonomous capabilities.

The three-legged "green" lander is fueled by 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide and receives its commands from an onboard computer that activates its onboard thrusters to carry it to a controlled landing using a pre-programmed flight profile.

It is 4 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter and, when fueled, weighs 700 pounds. In this series of tests, which will continue through September, the lander prototype will autonomously fly and hover at 30 feet for two tests, and up to 100 feet for another two tests, and then move sideways, to safely land 30 feet away from the launch pad.

The test demonstrates what it will take to perform the final descent of an autonomous controlled landing on the moon, asteroids or other airless bodies.

"These lander tests provide the data necessary to expand our capabilities to go to other destinations," said Dr. Greg Chavers, engineering manager and warm gas test article lead at the Marshall Center.

"It also furthers our knowledge of the engineering components needed for future human and robotic missions."

NASA will use the Mighty Eagle to mature the technology needed to develop a new generation of small, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of achieving scientific and exploration goals throughout the solar system.

The Mighty Eagle prototype lander was developed by the Marshall Center and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., for NASA’s Planetary Sciences Division, Headquarters Science Mission Directorate.

For more information visit NASA's robotic landers