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ESDMD #1101: Lunar Precision Landing and Hazard Avoidance for Human Exploration

Precision landing and hazard avoidance (PL&HA) to land crew and cargo safely close to other surface elements at the lunar South Pole, in all visibility conditions, including darkness and plume-surface interaction (bin 3, rating 27 of 57). Today's systems manage soft touchdowns on illuminated sites. The Foundational Exploration target is 50 m landing accuracy. This is the only technology gap the Users Guide names for its first headline Moon Base challenge, landing safely and accurately (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #1101; Users Guide, p. 12).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #1101 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field, âś“ included (ADD Rev C, p. 252).

Description

"Advancement in precision landing and hazard avoidance (PL&HA) is needed to safely and reliably aggregate surface elements at lunar South Pole region explorations sites. PL&HA technologies should enable safe and accurate landings in all visibility conditions (induced plume surface interaction effects, darkness, etc.) for safe delivery of crew and cargo to lunar exploration sites."

Impacts and benefits: "Without gap closure, the ability to land crew and cargo in close proximity to other surface elements and in low-visibility conditions is reduced."

Current state of the art

"Systems capable of soft-touchdowns on illuminated landing sites at the lunar South Pole region."

Performance target

Moon: "Enable crew and cargo to be landed at lunar South Pole region exploration sites in various illumination conditions with 50m landing accuracy for FE segment with <10 minute initialization time to confirm position within 25m."

Child gaps

  • 1101-01: Real-time mapping technologies for precision landing and hazard detection during lunar descent
  • 1101-02: Characterization and mitigation of plume surface interaction on lunar surface
  • 1101-03: Navigation sensors for lunar precision landing
  • 1101-04: Algorithms and onboard computing to enable lunar precision landing and hazard avoidance

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-T-401 L -- All FN; UC-T-402 L -- All FN
  • Definition tasks: Moon: âś“LD-03-L Lunar Landing Region Selection. The âś“ is printed in the sheet; the ADD's gap tables say "“✓” indicates completed definition task" (ADD Rev C, p. 204). LD-03-L is a legacy decision: "The lunar South Pole region will be the initial landing area for crewed missions" (p. 75; Key definition tasks).

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 3, overall prioritization rating 27 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

The Users Guide names #1101 under the headline challenge "Landing safely and accurately on the lunar surface" (Users Guide, p. 12). Its technology challenge reads:

  • "Develop precision landing systems capable of taking highly accurate range and velocity measurements over low-visibility terrain, including in shadow and with induced PSI effects."
  • "Develop hazard avoidance systems capable of real time identification of hazardous terrain to find safe touch down locations."

The same challenge's knowledge side lists data gaps DN-001 L, DN-002 L, DN-014 L, DN-017 L and DN-018 L, including plume-surface interaction ejecta. The guide ties its challenges to "near-term Moon Base development efforts": missions in phase one "offer opportunities to collect data and mature technologies to enable essential phase two and phase three capabilities" (p. 11). See Technology and knowledge challenges.

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #1101 · ADD Rev C, pp. 75, 78, 199, 204, 252 · Users Guide, p. 12