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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 27 2019, @03:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the also-useful-for-furniture dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Wednesday November 27 2019, @04:17PM (1 child)

    by PiMuNu (3823) on Wednesday November 27 2019, @04:17PM (#925373)

    https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/rp_lunar_surface_7.jpg?itok=z2M1qzKJ [nasa.gov]

    I can see solar panels, rockets, ramp for RORO - but what are the weird spheres? Fuel pods?

    What are the solar panels for? Just electricity during transit? Or something else?

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  • (Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:35AM

    by RandomFactor (3682) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 28 2019, @03:35AM (#925542) Journal

    I would think fuel storage for the spheres also.

    On the solar arrays, there are a few snips on them in the technical document that shed light:

    Yes, looks like they provide power during descent for the lander as well as initial charging of the rover. I didn't see any obvious to their use post landing, but I would be pretty surprised if the lander goes inert immediately. I remember something about it not surviving the 'night' when reading somewhere.

    While the SV launches unpowered, separation from the CLV triggers automatic power-up
    and initialization of the lander, which in turn provides 150 W of power to the rover. Transit to the
    lunar environment takes between 3 and 6 days during which time the lander guidance, navigation,
    and control (GNC) system will point the top of the lander toward the Sun where two solar panels
    will provide power generation

    The IAU contains the solar array and charge interfaces and the power distribution unit (PDU) portions of the EPS. The IAU interfaces with and provides power to the rover, while the PDU manages power.

    On the lunar surface, the lander will switch the payload to its internal power bus 15 minutes
    after landing via a mechanical switch. A rover will have 6 hours to perform all necessary checkouts
    and roll off the lander, during which time the lander will be transferring a critical dataset to the
    rover’s long-term storage for eventual downlink. There will be no interaction between the lander and
    rover post-egress.

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