Autonomous space flight system and planetary lander for...

Aeronautics and astronautics – Spacecraft – With propulsion

Reexamination Certificate

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C244S158800

Reexamination Certificate

active

07967255

ABSTRACT:
An autonomous unmanned space flight system and planetary lander executes a discrete landing sequence including performing an initial velocity braking maneuver to remove velocity at altitude, coasting during which the planet surface is imaged and correlated to reference maps to estimate cross-track and along-track navigation errors and one or more lateral braking maneuvers are performed to reduce cross-track navigation error, and performing a terminal velocity braking maneuver(s) to reduce the along-track braking maneuver and remove the remainder of the velocity just prior to landing. A bi-propellant propulsion system provides a very high T/M ratio, at least 15:1 per nozzle. Short, high T/M divert maneuvers provide the capability to remove cross-track navigation error efficiently up to the maximum resolution of the reference maps. Short, high T/M terminal velocity braking maneuver(s) provide the capability to remove along-track navigation error to a similar resolution and remove the remaining velocity in a very short time window, approximately 3-15 seconds prior to touchdown. The propulsive efficiency frees up mass which can be allocated to a fuel to remove the unknown navigation errors, perform hazard avoidance and/or relocate the lander by flying it to another site or be allocated to additional payload.

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J.N. Head, G.V. Hoppa, T. G. Gardner, K. S. Seybold, and T. Svitek, Autonomous Low Cost Precision Lander for Lunar Exploration. #1471, Proc. Of the 36thAnnual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, #1471, League City, Tx, Mar. 2005, pp. 1-2 and 25-26.
Presentation of a poster P23A-0222 “Autonomous Low Cost Precision Lander for Lunar Exploration” during 36thAnnual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, #1471, League City, Tx, Mar. 2005.
J.N. Head, G.V. Hoppa, T. G. Gardner, K. S. Seybold, “Low Cost Precision Lander for Lunar Exploration” AGU, 85(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract P23A-0222, 2004.
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‘Kill Vehicle’ Technology Could Land Low-Cost Science Missions on Moon, Lunar Enterprise Daily, Dec. 20, 2004.

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