14 DAY TRIAL // A spacecraft design created by engineers at the NASA Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas, has now been deemed ready to carry out its first untethered test flight. Experts want to use this machine to put about 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of cargo on the Moon.
The design, called Morpheus, is touted as a potential development pathway for space exploration, experts at NASA say. They explain that it could reach near-Earth objects (NEO), the Moon, Mars or other planets with relative ease.
The goal here is to enable humans to travel as fast as possible, as soon as they can. The spacecraft has been named after the Greek god of dreams, and the reason why JSC engineers are so confident in it is because it contains a host of new technologies.
In fact, even the methods used to build it are new and unusual, experts say. The SUV-sized probe is bound to play an important role in NASA's upcoming space exploration plans, if the new tests are successful, Space reports.
“Part of what this project set out to do was to question the way we've done things. We purposefully set out to see if we could do things faster and cheaper, leveraging off the work that was already done,” explains Matt Ondler.
According to the expert, who is the manager of the Morpheus project, the new spacecraft has the ability to avoid obstacles that may pop out during landing procedures, such as for example boulders and rocks.
Called Automated Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT), the system works by employing lasers to scan the ground underneath Morpheus many times per second. The system then sends over its data to the propulsion system, which makes the necessary corrections.
Interestingly, over the past 18 months, JSC engineers only needed $4 million to create this spacecraft, not accounting for the cost of wages played to employees. Those costs are already included in the NASA overhead.
Morpheus will also be powered by an interesting mix of fuel, which includes methane and liquid oxygen, as opposed to the commonly-used combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. In addition to being lighter than it counterpart, the new fuel has another benefit too.
According to experts at JSC, it could be possible for astronauts exploring other celestial bodies to manufacture the fuel supplies they need for their return home on the spot. For example, the Martian atmosphere is known to contain significant amounts of methane.
“There are still a few more issues that we're working through. We want to have two complete tethered flights in a row with no anomalies before we go untethered,” Ondler says of the new flight test.
Most likely, it will occur this June, but a clear date has not yet been set. It all depends on when the successful tethered flights are completed.
“It's sort of like taking the training wheels off. If we've done everything right, it should work just fine, but there's no safety net to catch it if things don't go right,” Ondler explains.
“Projects like Morpheus are invigorating and infectious. And they help us find better and cheaper ways to do things. To challenge our existing processes. To innovate,” adds the director of the JSC Engineering Directorate, Steve Altemus.