The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc.
Planetary Hopper
Draper is developing a planetary hopper vehicle to enable new science and exploration on other planets. The ability of hoppers to traverse vertically and avoid hazards makes them ideal candidates for exploring craters, hazardous terrain, and cliff faces on planetary surfaces.
As a first step in hopper development, Draper has gathered a team of engineers, MIT students, and their faculty advisors to develop a variable-g hopper testbed to mature operations, algorithms, and experience. The Terrestrial Autonomous Lunar Reduced gravity System (TALARIS) mimics various gravity environments by providing a reduced gravity operations mode in which electric ducted fans thrust against Earth’s gravity to mimic the fractional-gravity environments found on various planetary surfaces. Cold gas jets are used to maneuver the hopper in this simulated reduced gravity. Currently operating in a two degree-of-freedom mode, by Fall 2010, the team plans to achieve full six-degree-of-freedom flight. We are in the process of discussing a variety of advanced mission concepts that exploit Talaris’ unique hopping capabilities with NASA investigators from institutions including NASA GSFC, and MIT.
System BenefitsHoppers are ideal for scaling cliffs and hopping into canyons and craters.They avoid damage from the freezing temperatures common at the bottom of craters by precisely landing on the rim of a crater, hopping into the crater to collect samples and data, then hopping back out quickly.
