{"id":19674,"date":"2019-09-11T17:07:06","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T21:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=19674"},"modified":"2019-09-11T19:37:18","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T23:37:18","slug":"space-transport-roundup-sept-11-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=19674","title":{"rendered":"Space transport roundup – Sept.11.2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

[ Update<\/strong>: Masten Space Systems<\/a> flies the Xodiac rocket vehicle<\/a> to test terrain relative navigation systems developed by Draper Lab<\/a> that could one day be used for landers on the Moon, Mars and elsewhere:\u00a0 One Giant Leap for Lunar Landing Navigation – NASA<\/a><\/p>\n

But what is terrain relative navigation? And why is it so important to NASA\u2019s Artemis program<\/a> to return American astronauts to the Moon by 2024, and future human missions to Mars?<\/em><\/p>\n

Without capabilities like GPS, which is designed to help us navigate on Earth, determining a lander vehicle\u2019s location is much like comparing visual cues (e.g., road signs, important buildings, notable landmarks) while driving a car with those cues identified on road maps.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have onboard satellite maps loaded onto the flight computer and a camera acts as our sensor,\u201d explained [Draper’s Matthew Fritz]. \u201cThe camera captures images as the lander flies along a trajectory and those images are overlaid onto the preloaded satellite maps that include unique terrain features. Then by mapping the features in the live images, we\u2019re able to know where the vehicle is relative to the features on the map.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n