Test of New Moon Lander Morpheus

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... the Morpheus Lander.

NASA's prototype lander completed its first nighttime free-flight test Wednesday night at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In photos shared by NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the lander puts on quite an impressive show.
NASA's Morpheus Lander is a "prototype planetary lander capable of vertical takeoff and landing"; designed to carry up to 1,100 pounds of cargo to the moon, during Wednesday's 98-second nighttime test the lander flew 800 feet into the air.

NASA reports:

"Morpheus then flew forward and downward covering approximately 1,300 feet while performing a 78-foot divert to simulate a hazard avoidance maneuver. The lander then descended and landed on a dedicated pad inside the test field

It's ugly. ET will make fun of us.

a reply to: nighthawk1954

That is so steampunk.

And what kind of a rocket is that?

What a joke. Where's the "jet engine" to give it the "feel" of landing on the moon.??. This lander has too much power, if it is able to land on Earth, little Joe used a jet engine to make moon landing test more realistic. Otherwise, you end up with the rockets having too much power.
When they were training to go to the moon, little Joe, a landing test vehicle to train the Apollo astronauts how to land on the moon, had jet engines to counter act Earths gravity. So they could train with the feel of landing on the moon.
Obviously this one in the video will be unmanned, or it would also have that jet engine to simulate the moons gravity.

What a waste, why aren't MEN going back?

a reply to: GeekOfTheWeek

Of course we will never go back! Did not see Apollo 18!

originally posted by: GeekOfTheWeek
What a joke. Where's the "jet engine" to give it the "feel" of landing on the moon.??. This lander has too much power, if it is able to land on Earth, little Joe used a jet engine to make moon landing test more realistic. Otherwise, you end up with the rockets having too much power.
When they were training to go to the moon, little Joe, a landing test vehicle to train the Apollo astronauts how to land on the moon, had jet engines to counter act Earths gravity. So they could train with the feel of landing on the moon.
Obviously this one in the video will be unmanned, or it would also have that jet engine to simulate the moons gravity.

What a waste, why aren't MEN going back?

It doesn't need to give the "feel" of landing on the moon - the whole point is that it is automated landing. But the theory is that it would be possible to use it to carry a manned module.

a reply to: GeekOfTheWeek

It's a technology testbed, not a rocket that will literally land on the moon itself. It's designed to test a reusable methane/oxygen engine and automated hazard avoidance systems.

The Morpheus project provides an autonomous, reusable, rocket-powered, terrestrial vertical take-off/vertical landing vehicle for testing integrated spacecraft and planetary lander technologies. The integrated vertical test bed (VTB) offers a platform to develop, mature, refine, and demonstrate advanced technologies that increase autonomy, reliability, safety, and reusability, and improve navigation and landing capabilities.
...
Successfully implementing these capabilities will enable access to landing sites that were previously considered too hazardous to risk a robotic lander mission, much less a human mission.

morpheuslander.jsc.nasa.gov...

The technological development is to support future manned as well as unmanned missions. Long duration stays on the moon will likely involve infrastructure and preps delivered by unmanned vehicles, not just manned vehicles. Obviously any actual lunar lander will be tailored for that environment.

Well I'd say the reason for sending a drone/robot are a little more reasonable and cheaper than sending somebody to look out the window costing many extra billions... Rocket tech will never take us anywhere In a hurry it's just not practical

However I'm sure the tech is already being used that could take us a little further in a hurry

The lander is basic and tbh looks very dated lol... But it'll do the job nicely, tbh when I opened the thread and see the lander in the video image, that one out of Austin powered popped into my head...

Welcome to noin teen sheventy five Aushteen Powerssh

Named after the Greek god of Dreams...

Does anyone wonder why? How about that LOGO? Remind you of anything?



Let's just say we scare because we care...LOL



Fascinating that the premise of the movie was scaring kids while they SLEEP...

originally posted by: abeverage
Named after the Greek god of Dreams...

Does anyone wonder why? How about that LOGO? Remind you of anything?

Fascinating that the premise of the movie was scaring kids while they SLEEP...

Other than both containing the letter M, I don't see any similarity.

Looks more like somebody bending over and mooning me. Quite appropriate I suppose