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JPL and Autodesk Design Spider-Like Interplanetary Lander

posted by martyb on Thursday November 15 2018, @12:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the 'shadow'-of-things-to-come? dept.

takyon writes:

AI software helped NASA dream up this spider-like interplanetary lander

Using an AI design process, engineers at software company Autodesk and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory came up with a new interplanetary lander concept that could explore distant moons like Europa and Enceladus. Its slim design weighs less than most of the landers that NASA has already sent to other planets and moons.

Autodesk announced its new innovative lander design today at the company's conference in Las Vegas — revealing a spacecraft that looks like a spider woven from metal. The company says the idea to create the vehicle was sparked when Autodesk approached NASA to validate a lander prototype it had been working on. After looking at Autodesk's work, JPL and the company decided to form a design team — comprised of five engineers from Autodesk and five from JPL — to come up with a new way to design landers.

See also: These Organic-Inspired Planetary Landers Could Help NASA Reach Other Worlds

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 16 2018, @01:42AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 16 2018, @01:42AM (#762455) Journal

    A "lander" by definition will "land" on land. If some similar device comes down on ice, then it will be an "icer". And, if it comes down in water, then it can be part of a baseball team, as the "waterer", or more coloquially, as the "water boy".

    Now you know that aerospace considers it all "land" for purposes of landing. Aircraft, for example, can land on all three of those things.

    If it doesn't return from a landing, then it won't be "interplanetary".

    Where in the world did that come from? It's not true. Landing doesn't imply any sort of return capability.

    Also - why weren't the "lunar landers" referred to as "interlunar landers"?

    What does "interlunar" even mean? "Interplanetary" has a standard meaning, pertaining to the environment of the Solar System outside of the Earth-Moon (which incidentally is termed "cislunar") system.