2008 Issue 2 - Raytheon

Feature
Continued from page 19
Lunar Lander Challenge
On December 15, 2007, RMS joined a
multi-organization pursuit of Google’s Lunar
Lander Challenge to successfully place a
lander on the surface of the moon, move at
least 500 meters, and return pictures to
Earth. The team plans to explore the Sea
of Tranquility in July 2009, as illustrated
in Figure 2.
The technical challenge is to architect a system
that affordably meets space flight’s
severe environmental conditions, while following
the competition rules. “Lean architecting
and lean thinking allowed the team
to create functional design models for evaluation
in 21 days,” noted Dan Cheeseman,
the AMD/DEW product line’s chief architect
for Space Applications.
Human Lunar Lander
NASA has been conducting trade studies
and preliminary design activities to define
the lunar lander that will take humans
and cargo to the moon by 2019. A typical
lunar mission would take four people to
the surface in a lander measuring nearly
three stories tall and weighing about
50,000 pounds. Raytheon is engaged
with NASA for assessment of the lander's
avionics design.
Precision Navigation And Landing
To avoid obstacles and achieve exploration
objectives, robotic and human landers will
require precise navigation. NASA’s Langley
Research Center is soliciting technologydevelopment
proposals to achieve pinpoint
landing accuracy for the Constellation program.
“We want to work with NASA to
improve lander accuracy through precision
navigation algorithms developed for missiles,
laser optics from SAS, and a Raytheon
Vision Systems focal-plane array,”
McMonagle said. “The Raytheon team
coordinated a proposal to develop all of
20 2008 ISSUE 2 RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGY TODAY
the requisite technology elements that fit
together in a well-integrated system. SAS
and RMS both won contract elements. The
applications of this system will extend
beyond the moon to robotic Mars landings,
and potentially a future landing on Europa,
one of Jupiter’s moons.”
Raytheon’s Tomahawk cruise missile has
capabilities with many applications for lander
spacecraft. Its Digital Scene Matching
Area Correlator (DSMAC) for terrain contour
matching enables navigation limited
only by the resolution of the reference map.
In a demonstration, DSMAC successfully
processed 1,000 different scenes based on
lunar images from the Clementine and
Apollo 15 programs. Raytheon’s algorithms
can have a dramatic impact on NASA’s ability
to precisely navigate to pinpoint landings.
Earth-Science Missions
NASA’s 2009 budget supports five
Earth-science missions in the next six years,
and the agency has requested funding for
two more in the next 10 years. In addition,
the National Academy of Sciences plan
includes 17 missions by 2020. “Some
of those are likely to involve Raytheon
Space
Figure 2. On December 15, 2007, RMS joined a multi-organization team to compete in
Google’s Lunar Lander Challenge. This drawing depicts the lander and rover exploring the
Sea of Tranquility in July 2009.
technology,” McMonagle predicted, “and
RMS expects to participate in the bidding.”
“RMS’ commitment to the space market is
a long-term one, and the substantial level
of collaboration taking place between
Raytheon businesses is bringing value to
NASA,” McMonagle noted. “It involves
aligning our internal research and development
efforts with NASA’s needs, investing
in proposal development, sustaining longterm
relationships with NASA personnel,
and leveraging Raytheon’s talent in
multiple areas.”
“We should all be excited about Raytheon’s
space efforts,” McMonagle concluded.
“Our company brings a legacy of innovation
and a customer-focused culture to
support NASA’s progress toward mankind’s
destiny in space exploration.”
Don McMonagle
don_mcmonagle@raytheon.com