NASA Successfully Demonstrates Advanced Planetary Landing Technology

NASA has successfully demonstrated a new technology, Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE), designed to enable spacecraft to autonomously navigate to safe landing sites on the Moon and other planets. An Alta-X drone, equipped with the SPLICE guidance, navigation, and control payload, completed simulated lunar descent and landing maneuvers on August 27. These tests took place at Rogers Dry Lake, located near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

During the tests, the SPLICE payload utilized an advanced guidance system to map the terrain and assess potential landing areas. If the system identified a targeted landing area as unsafe, it autonomously diverted the drone to a more secure location. This sophisticated system generates high-resolution digital elevation maps using light-detection and sensor data, crucial for precise and hazard-free landings.

Researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston developed the SPLICE payload. They partnered with specialists at NASA Armstrong to integrate, test, and fly the system aboard the Alta-X drone during June and July. These earlier tests were vital for verifying communications, data handling, telemetry, and command-control performance between the SPLICE payload and the drone, preparing it for a full-scale test scheduled at Voyager Technologies in Mojave, California, later this month.

Davis Adams, NASA project manager, stated that this flight test represents "the culmination of almost a decade of work, for the SPLICE project." He emphasized that the flight significantly raised the technology readiness level of SPLICE, making it suitable for integration into future robotic and crewed lunar flights. Adams also highlighted the broad applicability of the guidance and navigation systems, confirming their relevance for terrestrial, lunar, and Martian descent and landing missions.

NASA has actively collaborated with several commercial lunar lander providers to implement various iterations of SPLICE into their platforms. A number of landers slated for upcoming Moon Base missions are set to leverage data collected by NASA through the development of systems like SPLICE to achieve soft touchdowns on the lunar surface. Adams mentioned that coordination with industry regarding the usage of the guidance system is ongoing, with its availability in the NASA software catalog currently planned for this fall. Some companies are also evaluating the system’s navigation capabilities for precision landing applications and potential extensions for autonomous surface mobility.

Early flight testing of the SPLICE project was enabled by NASA’s Flight Opportunities project, based at NASA Armstrong, which laid the foundation for its technological advancement. This included a descent altitude and landing trajectory test in 2019, simulating conditions expected on a lunar mission, and the demonstration of two NASA-developed precision landing sensor systems in 2020.

What to watch: The integration of SPLICE into future lunar and Martian missions and its release in the NASA software catalog this fall.

Editor's note: Comprehensive and precise representation of the NASA release and full text.