ESA: Europe to Launch Robotic Space Plane Prototype in November

Artist's impression of the European Space Agency's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV).

Credit: ESA/J.Huart

The launch of a robotic space plane prototype in November could pave the way toward the creation of a reusable cargo vehicle that would survive the blistering re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, according to the European Space Agency.

ESA officials plan to launch the unmanned space plane, called the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), on a Vega rocket in early November.

The flight plan calls for Vega to make an eastward flight, different than its usual polar orbit track, to release IXV into a suborbital path that would end in the Pacific Ocean.

Officials with the space agency hope to eventually use the reusable space place as an automated vehicle that will fly through the atmosphere aerodynamically, controlled by thrusters and its surfaces, then splash down safely in the sea.

Technicians do final tests on the European Space Agency's Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) ahead of its expected launch in November 2014. 

Credit: ESA

"In this mission we are not only monitoring the spacecraft all along its autonomous flight, but also tracking its progress back to Earth to a particular spot, this is different [than] what we are used to," Giorgio Tumino, the project manager for IXV, said in a statement.

IXV will include sensors and infrared cameras to examine how heating is distributed across the belly of the spacecraft.

The space plane will also fly with new technologically advanced features.

"The technical advancements that have been made since the first experiments with our Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator in 1996 are huge," Jose Longo, ESA's head of aerothermodynamics, said in the same statement.

"This is the first flight demonstration of features such as highly advanced thermal structures: thrusters and flaps that are part of the control system, and the 300 sensors and infrared camera to map the heating all along the spacecraft from the nose to the flaps. These things just cannot be tested in the same way in laboratories."



ESA is also going to test an infrared camera on its final automated transfer vehicle (ATV), called Georges Lemaitre, on a mission launching to the International Space Station Tuesday (July 29).

The ATV is designed to break up in Earth's atmosphere during re-entry after it leaves the space station about six months after it docks, according to ESA.

For the first time, ESA plans to track the spacecraft's re-entry using a special infrared camera.

The camera will transmit information to a special pod designed to survive re-entry, which will then send the information on to Earth through the Iridium satellite network.

Morpheus Prototype Uses Hazard Detection System to Land Safely in Night Test - Video

Image Credit: NASA/Mike Chambers

NASA demonstrated that it can land an unmanned spacecraft on a rugged planetary surface in the pitch dark in a May 28, 2014 free-flight test of the Morpheus prototype lander and Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT).

The 98-second test began at 10:02 p.m. EDT, with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending more than 800 feet (244 m) into the dark Florida sky at Kennedy Space Center using only ALHAT's Hazard Detection System for guidance.

The Hazard Detection System, assisted by three light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors, located obstacles -- such as rocks and craters -- and safely landed on the lunar-like hazard field a quarter mile away from the NASA Center.


Project Morpheus tests NASA’s ALHAT and an engine that runs on liquid oxygen and methane, which are green propellants.

These new capabilities could be used in future efforts to deliver cargo to planetary surfaces. The landing facility provides the lander with the kind of field necessary for realistic testing, complete with rocks, craters and hazards to avoid.

Morpheus’ ALHAT payload allows it to navigate to clear landing sites amidst rocks, craters and other hazards during its descent.

Project Morpheus is being managed under the Advanced Exploration Systems (AES), Division in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

The efforts in AES pioneer new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit.

NASA's Morpheus Lander: Prototype Touches Down on Mock Moonscape - Video

A prototype of NASA's Morpheus lander kicked up a cloud of fake moon dust as it touched down softly on a mock lunar landscape in Florida in this week.

On Wednesday (April 30), the Morpheus vehicle dubbed Bravo lifted off for its twelfth free-flight test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The robotic vehicle flew a pre-programmed path that launched it vertically, and then rose to an altitude of more than 800 feet (243 meters), NASA officials said in a description of a video of the mock moonscape flight.

After liftoff, Morpheus then flew sideways 1,300 feet (396 m), hovering over a 65-yard (59 m) square sandbox full of obstacles like rocks and craters.

NASA's Morpheus vehicle prototype is seen just after landing on a mock lunar surface during in this still from a NASA video recording at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida during an April 30, 2014 test flight.

Credit: NASA /Project Morpheus

NASA recently started testing its automated landing and hazard avoidance technology (ALHAT) installed on the vehicle.

This 400-pound suite of computers and three instruments is designed to scan the surface of a potential landing site for hazards, such as a dangerous boulder or crater, so that the spacecraft doesn't crash or tip over as it touches down.

The ALHAT technology mapped the square and identified a safe landing site 4.5 feet (1.4 m) east of the center of the landing pad and targeted that location to gently touch down on the mock lunar surface, NASA officials said.

Chirold Epp

"We've been working a long time, eight years, to prove we can do autonomous, precision landing and hazard avoidance and guidance," Chirold Epp, project manager for ALHAT, said in a NASA statement a week before the latest flight.

"We really need to show the world that everything we've been advertising for eight years works."

Starshade: Space sunflower will help snap pictures of planets

The prototype Starshade, a giant structure designed to block the glare of stars so that future space telescopes can take pictures of planets.

A spacecraft that looks like a giant sunflower might one day be used to acquire images of Earth-like rocky planets around nearby stars.

The prototype deployable structure, called a starshade, is being developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The hunt is on for planets that resemble Earth in size, composition and temperature. Rocky planets with just the right temperature for liquid water—not too hot, not too cold—could be possible abodes for life outside our solar system.

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered hundreds of planets orbiting other stars, called exoplanets, some of which are a bit larger than Earth and lie in this comfortable "Goldilocks" zone.

Researchers generally think it's only a matter of time before we find perfect twins of Earth. The next step would be to image and characterise their spectra, or chemical signatures, which provide clear clues about whether those worlds could support life.

The Starshade is designed to help take those pictures of planets by blocking out the overwhelmingly bright light of their stars.

Simply put, the Starshade is analogous to holding your hand up to the sun to block it while taking a picture of somebody.

The proposed Starshade could launch together with a telescope. Once in space, it would separate from the rocket and telescope, unfurl its petals, then move into position to block the light of stars.

NASA tests Zoe, the new Mars rover prototype, in Chile

NASA scientists said Friday they were testing a prototype of a robot the US space agency hopes to send to Mars in 2020 in Chile's Atacama desert.

NASA hopes to use this kind of rover to explore life-friendly sites found by Curiosity, the rover already searching for signs of life on Mars.

It has been there since last August.

The researchers say the desert, the driest spot on Earth, mimics the conditions of the Red Planet, and the agency has used it in the past to test space-bound equipment.

The robot, controlled remotely from the US, will continue testing through Sunday.

The solar-powered 771-kilogram (1,700-pound) machine is equipped with cameras and a drill able to dig up to a meter (three feet) deep.

It is testing its sensors, its cameras, its ability to store energy, as it searches for evidence of microbial life in the desert.

The Zoe robot will use a one-meter drill, shown here protruding above the robot's solar cell deck, to search for subsurface life in Chile's Atacama Desert. 

Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute and the SETI Institute are leading the NASA-sponsored field experiment. 

Credit: Carnegie Mellon University

DARPA Advanced Robotic Hand prototype shows its moves - Video

Robotic hands designed and engineered for versatility and dexterity in handling harmful, harmless, small, large, light, and heavy objects tease robotics teams today.

The US government's DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is getting attention this month in its steps forward to develop robotic hands that can do the jobs of the human hand's advanced movements, but capable of being built at less prohibitive costs.

The recently released DARPA video reveals how far robotic hands have come in manipulative mastery.

The three-fingered hand, hardly human-like in appearance, nonetheless excels in function, as it is shown picking up objects from keys to transit cards to basketballs and heavy (50 pound) weights.

The DARPA-funded work was conducted by iRobot of Bedford, Massachusetts, with support from Harvard University and Yale University.

The hand prototype is part of DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) project, on DARPA's ARM-H program track that looks at dexterous hands at a reasonable cost.

The GRAB Lab site at Yale reported that "We have developed a new hand design for the DARPA ARM-H program, in collaboration with iRobot Corporation and researchers at Harvard University.

This hand is underactuated, but retains critical in-hand manipulation capabilities such as reorienting grasped objects, and picking up small objects such as keys and pens.

Of the three designs submitted to DARPA, our hand was selected for distribution to all participants in the DARPA ARM-S program."

The government program is specifically interested in lower-cost robot manipulators that can handle things with less human control.

The interest is also in finding autonomous manipulation systems that can surpass the performance level of remote manipulation systems that are controlled directly by a human operator.

The iRobot, Harvard and Yale effort has resulted in a hand advanced enough to perform maneuvers that call for precision at a cost that makes a difference.

According to reports, the prototype could be made at $3,000 per unit in batches of 1,000 or more, in contrast to the $50,000 price of current technology.

Hybrid Technology: Plug-In Retrofit Kit designed for mileage savings - YouTube

Powered by at least nine MTSU students' work since 2008, Dr. Charles Perry continues driving toward success in the development of the plug-in hybrid retrofit kit for any car.

Perry, who holds the Russell Chair of Manufacturing Excellence, and a five-member team saw gas mileage increase anywhere from 50 to 100 percent on a 1994 Honda station wagon retrofitted with laboratory prototype plug-in hybrid capability.

Learn more about the project.

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

NASA’s Morpheus: Prototype Green Lander Explodes During Testing

The first freeflight of Nasa JSC's Morpheus LOX-Methane vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket vehicle. It appears to have had a guidance failure. The heat of the methane burning then burst a LOX tank.

The lander flew a short distance before spinning head over tail and plummeting to the ground, where it burst into flame and exploded after about half a minute.

No one was injured during the testing of the lander, nicknamed ‘Morpheus’ after the Greek god of dreams.

The test would have marked the first solo flight of the 10-ft-long, 2,300 lb prototype.

NASA's Morpheus “was testing an engine that burned liquid oxygen and liquid methane, a technology NASA believed could benefit future landing or in-space propulsion systems.”

According to Jon Olansen, Morpheus’ project manager, the destruction of the craft, estimated to have cost about $500,000 was almost complete.

While the memory devices that could give a clue to what went wrong were successfully salvaged, in Olansen’s words, “The vehicle itself is lost.”

The team hopes to be able to gather enough data from the craft’s demise to be able to discover what went wrong during the test and fix it in any subsequent prototypes.

“We want to make sure that what we learn today gets applied to that next vehicle,” Olansen

NASA released a statement saying that failure is “part of the development process” and that they are confident the team will discover what’s wrong and fix the issue.