masten_xombie_launch

A Nasa-sponsored launch has recently taken place from the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, US, with an on-board sensor package developed by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to study large pits on the surface of the moon or Mars.

The computer vision technology sensor package was installed on Masten Space Systems’s XA-0.1B Xombie suborbital technology demonstration rocket.

During the 64 seconds flight, the rocket climbed to around 111m and passed through over a simulated hexagon pit to return to its pad.

Masten business operations director Nathan O’Konek said: "We are working with Carnegie Mellon students who are developing a technology to build maps and 3D models of the features of the moon.

"Our lander test vehicles are able to simulate landing trajectories that a lander on the moon would actually follow; we descend at rates similar to what a lunar lander would follow at low-altitudes.

"Carnegie Mellon students are developing a technology to build maps and 3D models of the features of the moon."

"We fly their instrument and they take imagery of the terrain that validates that the instruments are going to be able to do the same thing on the moon."

Planned for a robotic lunar mission, the sensor package will explore a pit on the moon’s surface for its geometry, geology, and origin.

The pits are believed to be lava tubes that could give details of the moon’s volcanic past, and could provide future explorers shelter from extreme temperatures, meteorites and radiation.

CMU professor and mentor Red Whittaker said: "The first three pits ever identified were images taken by the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft (launched in 2007).

"Evidence that these pits could be lunar lava tubes was first recognised during the Apollo era."

The spacecraft with using the computer vision sensor package will fly over the pit to generate a 3D map of the depression and would travel to the pit using the CMU-developed robot Andy for further studies.

Image: Masten ground crew prepare Xombie for flight of CMU students’ sensor package for future lunar mission. Photo: courtesy of Nasa Photo / Tom Tschida.