Advanced hazard detection (HD) is key to sustainable planetary landings at the most challenging and interesting sites. In particular, HD is needed to safely and precisely land Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander and deploy NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) at the South Pole of the Moon, currently planned for 2023. There is also a lack of proven commercial LiDAR hazard detection solutions that combine space-grade hardware, software, and simulation tools. This project’s objective is to reduce risk to NASA’s VIPER Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission and future missions by performing real-time, open-loop hazard detection sensor tests with relevant landing trajectories and validate sensor performance in an operational environment.

Coupling MDA Ltd.’s downward-looking LiDAR for Extraterrestrial Imaging Applications (LEIA) with Astrobotic’s HD LiDAR sensor could increase reliability and precision. The flight test aims to increase the technology readiness level (TRL) from 6 to 7.

CLPS lunar landers (including Astrobotic and others), Mars and other planetary landers, LiDAR for larger rovers (e.g., lunar terrain vehicle), Rendezvous proximity operations and docking missions for NASA and U.S. Department of Defense