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NASA has shared a new 'Pallet Lander' Concept with industry that could be used to carry various payloads to the Moon's surface. The design, revealed in a technical paper published on the NASA Technical Reports Server, appears to be an evolution of the Lunar Pallet Lander (LPL) concept from 2015.
"This lander was designed with simplicity in mind to deliver a 300 kilogram [661 lb] rover to a lunar pole," said Logan Kennedy, the project's lead systems engineer.
The lander is intended to be carried on commercial launch vehicles and is part of NASA's "Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
As NASA turns to commercial partners to land scientific instruments -- and eventually humans -- on the Moon's surface, companies can benefit from work NASA has already done.
"As robotic lunar landers grow to accommodate larger payloads, simple but high-performing landers with a contiguous payload volume will be needed," Kennedy said. "This concept was developed by a diverse team of people over many years and meets that need.
"We hope that other lander designers can benefit from our work," he added.
NASA has a goal of sending astronauts back to the moon by 2024.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @04:11AM
Nah, he will send 150,000 kg of his stuff instead of 300 kg.