Project Morpheus is trying very, very hard to be a next-gen, fuel efficient, intelligent, autonomous, lean, green, safer, cheaper planetary lander. Barring one notable and very explosive exception, the project has been going quite well, with the lander making a long series of increasingly more complex atmospheric flights at Kennedy Space Center. The video below shows the entirety of Free Flight 8, which included a simulated hazard avoidance maneuver over an equally simulated planetary surface, that resulted in the lander touching down a mere ten inches from its target after traveling over 600 feet. This is nothing compared to the distance from Florida to the Moon, but the Morpheus team is working up to that: today, Free Flight 9 will take the lander higher, faster, and farther. And sooner or later, the Moon will be in range.
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Via Project Morpheus
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