The Astrobotic Technology spacecraft employs small thrusters at each of its four corners to control its attitude, or pose in space, so that the main engine points in the right direction for its major burns and the spacecraft touches down cleanly. The video shows a reduced-size platform that demonstrates sensor fusion between inertial and absolute sensing has been achieved. The video closes with a scene showing the attitude returns to zero despite imparted disturbances.
To allow safe indoor test runs, compressed air jets are substituted for the fueled motors that will be used on the lander.
2 Comments
You folks need to put an email address on your website for contacting your company. It would also be nice if you sent press releases out to the media instead of leaving us to find them on other websites days after they were issued.
Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
An email address has been added to our contact page. Currently, our news and releases are posted to the Google Lunar X-Prize website in addition to our own, but we’re always interested in expanding our media options.