hopper spacecraft simulator

Hopper Spacecraft Simulator

The “Hopping” Concept

-Land on a celestial body using engines, conduct surface operations, then re-ignite engines and ‘hop’ to a new location on said body.

- Can hop multiple times until fuel runs out.

-Hopping can bypass dangerous/impassable terrain very quickly and can traverse vast distances.

-First hop was accomplished by Surveyor 6 in 1967. Traversed a distance of 10 feet.

-NASA has a lot of experience with rovers… and landers… but not hoppers.

Surveyor 6

Example Mission:Historical Lunar Landing Sties

-Land near one site and hop to some other historical sites.

-Deploy small payloads at each destination.

-Land at a refueling station (assumed to be constructed) , refuel, and keep hopping.

Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Problem

1) How will the hopper control itself to enable a stable flight?

2) How will the hopper know where it is and where it needs to go?

3) How will the hopper figure out the best (optimal) trajectory to get it to its final destination?

Control

Tilt Sensor

Gyroscope

Motor

Hopper Spacecraft Simulator(Constructed to test GNC algorithms)

Quick Facts:- Total Mass: 13.7kg or 30lbs- Total Thrust: 180N or 40lbs- Powered by Lithium-polymer batteries- 17.4 Ah in batteries- Thrust provided by 4 ducted fans- Fans pivot in a single axis enabling

translational movement

70cm

40cm

Actual Hardware

Hardware Continued

Future Work

-Currently Re-working control board to gain computational speed and efficiency

-Working on semi and fully-autonomous flight capabilities

-Simulator will be used to test future GNC algorithms Lehigh may develop

-A second-generation hopper with a larger thrust to weight ratio is currently in the design phase.

Future Research: Trajectory Optimization

A

B

B

A

Horizontal Trajectory

Ballistic Trajectory(Bang-Bang)

Details and AcknowledgementsLehigh Hopper YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheLehighHopper#p/a/u/1/iPkFOJeE0FQ

Contact:Professor Terry Hart

teh305@Lehigh.eduAndrew Abraham

aja208@Lehigh.edu

Acknowledgements:Jeff Diebold Dan FrankKiki SchuckMike MastrolaMatt BilskyZack Rambo