Further Development and Flight Testing of a Prototype Lunar and Planetary Surface Exploration Hopper: Update on the TALARIS Project

Abstract

This paper presents an update on the Earth-based hopper prototype for autonomous planetary exploration that MIT and Draper Laboratory are developing as part of the Next Giant Leap team's efforts in the Google Lunar X-Prize. New developments and upgrades, culminating in the second-generation vehicle, are described in this paper, as well as the ongoing test program and experimental results. Recent developments include a redesign of the vehicle structure, an upgrade to the avionics system, the use of an upgraded version of the gravity-offsetting propulsion system (which uses electrically-powered ducted fans) and the incorporation of the secondary spacecraft-emulator propulsion system (which uses compressed nitrogen propellant and cold gas thrusters).