[meteorite-list] JPL, Masten Testing New Precision Landing Software

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 16:46:40 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201308122346.r7CNkeLA019032_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-247

JPL, Masten Testing New Precision Landing Software
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 12, 2013

A year after NASA's Mars rover Curiosity's landed on Mars, engineers at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are testing a
sophisticated flight-control algorithm that could allow for even more
precise, pinpoint landings of future Martian spacecraft.

Flight testing of the new Fuel Optimal Large Divert Guidance algorithm -
G-FOLD for short - for planetary pinpoint landing is being conducted
jointly by JPL engineers in cooperation with Masten Space Systems in
Mojave, Calif., using Masten's XA-0.1B "Xombie" vertical-launch,
vertical-landing experimental rocket.

NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate is facilitating the tests
via its Game-Changing Development and Flight Opportunities Programs; the
latter managed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air
Force Base, Calif. The two space technology programs work together to
test game-changing technologies by taking advantage of Flight
Opportunities' commercially provided suborbital platforms and flights.

"The Flight Opportunities Program supports both the development of
innovative space technology and the emerging suborbital industry by
using commercial suborbital vehicles to test concepts that could further
mankind's exploration and understanding of the universe," said
Christopher Baker, a campaign manager for the program. "The
collaboration between JPL and Masten to test G-FOLD is a great example
of how we hope to further the exploration of the solar system while
building up the industrial base needed to advance future space endeavors."

Current powered-descent guidance algorithms used for spacecraft landings
are inherited from the Apollo era. These algorithms do not optimize fuel
usage and significantly limit how far the landing craft can be diverted
during descent. The new G-FOLD algorithm invented by JPL autonomously
generates fuel-optimal landing trajectories in real time and provides a
key new technology required for planetary pinpoint landing. Pinpoint
landing capability will allow robotic missions to access currently
inaccessible science targets. For crewed missions, it will allow
increased precision with minimal fuel requirements to enable landing
larger payloads in close proximity to predetermined targets.

Masten Space Systems launched the Xombie July 30 from the company's test
pad at the Mojave Air and Space Port. JPL and Masten are planning to
conduct a second flight test with a more complicated divert profile in
August, pending data analysis.

To simulate a course correction during a Martian entry in the July test,
Masten's Xombie was given a vertical descent profile to an incorrect
landing point. About 90 feet into the profile, the G-FOLD flight control
software was automatically triggered to calculate a new flight profile
in real-time, and the rocket was successfully diverted to the "correct"
landing point some 2,460 feet away.

"This flight was an unprecedented free-flying demonstration of the
on-board calculation of a fuel-optimal trajectory in real time," said
Martin Regehr, acting task lead for the Autonomous Descent Ascent
Powered-Flight Testbed at JPL.

Masten Space Systems is one of seven suborbital reusable launch
companies contracted by NASA's Flight Opportunities Program to fly
experiments in sub-orbital space to verify new technologies work as
expected in this harsh environment.

NASA Dryden also aided development of Curiosity's "sky crane" landing
system by conducting two series of pre-launch flight tests of its
landing radar, the first under a helicopter in 2010 and a follow-on
series with the radar housed in a Quick Test Experimental Pod mounted
under the wing of a Dryden F/A-18 in June 2011. The 2011 tests focused
on the on-chute acquisition portion of the Mars Science Laboratory's
entry into the Martian atmosphere, when the spacecraft was suspended
from its parachute. Data collected from the flights were used to finesse
the mission's landing radar software to ensure that it was calibrated as
accurately as possible prior to Curiosity's landing.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
manages the Curiosity project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. For information about Curiosity's accomplishments over the
past year, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

For more on flight tests of Curiosity's landing radar, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/F-18_flying_msl_radar.html
.

For more on NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/home/ .

Leslie Williams / Alan Brown 661-276-3893 / 276-2665
Dryden Flight Research Center
leslie.a.williams at nasa.gov / alan.brown-1 at nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

2013-245
Received on Mon 12 Aug 2013 07:46:40 PM PDT