Can a lander choose a safer spot on its own?
During an August 27 drone flight in California, SPLICE assessed terrain for landing hazards. NASA published its account on November 4.
What happened
Selecting a landing spot requires more than reaching the right coordinates. In a November 4 update, NASA described an August 27 drone experiment in California using SPLICE, its landing-navigation payload. The equipment assessed terrain during simulated lunar descent and could redirect the aircraft toward a safer area.
The agency says the system creates detailed elevation maps from sensor information. Earlier integration work checked communications and command handling between the payload and the aircraft. The flight tested the equipment on Earth under simulated descent conditions.
Our analysis
Moving hazard assessment onto the vehicle is valuable when remote commands cannot resolve a landing problem quickly enough. The next useful evidence is performance across unfamiliar terrain and demanding operating conditions. The flight result addresses one navigation uncertainty. Mission readiness also requires evidence from operating conditions beyond this test.
What to watch
- Can later testing reproduce the result with the constraints of an actual descent?
Sources and method
NASA Navigation Experiment Shows Promise for Planetary Landings ↗
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