Marshall Space Flight Center's "Mighty Eagle" unmanned lunar lander. (NASA photo) HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- NASA's Mighty Eagle Robotic Lander is ready for its closeup. If the weather cooperates, as expected, the prototype unmanned craft
in front of the news media at Redstone Arsenal.
The plan now is to fly the lander 100 feet into the air, move it 30 feet in one direction and land it safely at one of the Army's test areas on the Arsenal. The Army and NASA are working together on the project.
The lander, which is fueled by hydrogen peroxide and controlled by its own on-board computer, was developed in
office under team leader Julie Bassler. The idea is to develop low-cost lander options for NASA to consider for future planetary or asteroid probes, where the challenge is to land with little or no gravity to slow the craft, no pilot to guide it and distances so great that a command from Earth to brake the craft wouldn't reach it until the lander had already crashed into the surface.
The lander has flown several times before including two outdoor tests at lower altitude. Videos of those flights can been seen by following the top link above.