TY - GEN
T1 - Initial development of an Earth-based prototype for a lunar hopper autonomous exploration system
AU - Cunio, Phillip M.
AU - Babuscia, Alessandra
AU - Bailey, Zachary J.
AU - Chaurasia, Hemant
AU - Goel, Rahul
AU - Golkar, Alessandro A.
AU - Selva, Daniel
AU - Timmons, Eric
AU - Cohanim, Babak E.
AU - Hoffman, Jeffrey A.
AU - Miller, David W.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - MIT is developing an Earth-based hopper prototype for autonomous planetary exploration. This paper describes the initial development of the hopper prototype and its application as a testbed for lunar hopper technologies. The prototype hopper consists of a gravity-canceling system, composed of battery-powered electric ducted fans, and an integrated lunar hopper system, which operates using cold gas propulsion. The gravity-canceling system is designed to allow the lunar hopper system to operate in an environment which is dynamically similar to the surface of the Moon, although it also allows for recovery and safe touchdown if the cold gas system experiences a failure. The environment provided by the electric ducted fans applies the fan thrust against Earth's gravity to obtain a desired upward acceleration, allowing the cold gas jets to operate as if they were in a fractional-gravity environment. The key design features of the integrated gravity-canceling and lunar hopping systems are presented in this paper.
AB - MIT is developing an Earth-based hopper prototype for autonomous planetary exploration. This paper describes the initial development of the hopper prototype and its application as a testbed for lunar hopper technologies. The prototype hopper consists of a gravity-canceling system, composed of battery-powered electric ducted fans, and an integrated lunar hopper system, which operates using cold gas propulsion. The gravity-canceling system is designed to allow the lunar hopper system to operate in an environment which is dynamically similar to the surface of the Moon, although it also allows for recovery and safe touchdown if the cold gas system experiences a failure. The environment provided by the electric ducted fans applies the fan thrust against Earth's gravity to obtain a desired upward acceleration, allowing the cold gas jets to operate as if they were in a fractional-gravity environment. The key design features of the integrated gravity-canceling and lunar hopping systems are presented in this paper.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77958570869&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:77958570869
SN - 9781563479793
T3 - AIAA Space 2009 Conference and Exposition
BT - AIAA Space 2009 Conference and Exposition
T2 - AIAA Space 2009 Conference and Exposition
Y2 - 14 September 2009 through 17 September 2009
ER -