|
|
|
How it will look: LEAPFROG |
 |
|
|
David Barnhart
310-822-1511 |
|
|
|
|
Eric Mankin
mankin@usc.edu
310-448-9112 |
|
|
It's a model lunar lander, and Viterbi School astronautical
engineering grads and undergrads have been jumping to get it
designed and built - with substantial ISI help.
The dedicated research project to create a Lunar Lander
Prototype Vehicle began September 1 and proudly
showed off its hardware December 4th at the 2nd Space
Exploration Conference in Houston.
The December 4 presentation brought the team high
visibility, said Davd Barnhart, the director of the
Aerospace Technology and Systems Center at the Viterbi
School's Information Sciences Institute, and leader of the
project.
JANUARY UPDATE: The LEAPFROG team
has successfully static-
tested its engine. See video of the test at:
http://
viterbi.usc.edu/images/video/leapfrog_static_test.mov
Two students of the original team were hosted there by
Boeing Corporation as
part of a Future Leaders Initiative, and talked to a host of
industry and
government participants, including the Director of Ames
Research Center and
the Chief Scientist of Marshall Space Flight Center. "As
a result of the
conference the LEAPFROG team is in discussion with an
industry partner to
potentially fly some of their real hardware on the lander for
flight test
verification, exactly what LEAPFROG was meant to do,"
Barnhart said.
LEAPFROG stands for "Lunar Entry and Approach Platform
for Research on Ground." Barnhart has been been
working with Mike Gruntman, Chair of the Astronautics and
Space Technology Division (ASTD) supervising an
enthusiastic group of 14 budding ASTD astronautical and
other department major engineers, graduate and
undergraduate, in building a small, autonomously controlled
hovercraft that can simulate the problems involved in setting
down on the moon.
According to Barnhart, the design is inspired by a real, full-
size machine used to train Apollo astronauts, the Lunar
Lander Research Vehicle, a flyer that simulated (by means
of a special, additional jet engine) the reduced gravity that
the Lunar Module would encounter. LEAPFROG is smaller (a
little more than 3 feet in diameter) and much, much cheaper
(about $12,000 compared to millions for the original
LLRV).
But Barnhart said it will provide "an actual flight platform &hellip
to test early prototypes of key landing subsystems, through
a similar
profile, and in similar dust and lighting conditions that will be
experienced on the moon."
The goal is "hardware, not paper," in the words of the
project plan, with a "focus on rapid fabrication, integration
and test - build a little, test a little, fly a little."
The success so far has already attracted the attention of the
aerospace community and NASA, leading to an invitation to
showcase the project in Houston.
"I am amazed at the progress and scope the student team
has achieved in such a short time," said Alan Weston, from
Ames Research Center, who attended the Critical Design and
Integration Review, which the team held only a few weeks
after coming together.
The student participation is not just assembling an existing
idea. Rather, the effort involves everything from designing
from scratch using off-the-shelf components to assembling
and integrating a complete flight system. The design
team follows traditional spacecraft subsystem roles including
system engineering (Kristina Rojdev); guidance navigation
and control (Morgan Hendry); structures (Michael Rudolph
and Allen Eramya); jet engine (Jason Cheng); power and
harness (Lucy Hoag); communications (Omer Faghfoor),
ground and flight systems (Nicole Jordan) and attitude
control (Alvin Garcia, Jose Martinez and Savith Chauhan).
So far, the principle obstacles have been juggling the
student team's schedules with the demands of a fast paced
flight project.
Barnhart said standout successes have included design and
fabrication of the attitude control thrusters by Savith
Chauhan within six weeks, a process normally taking three
months; architecting, purchasing and running the Rabbit
microcontroller software and PLC hardware to control the jet
engine and the ACS thrusters by Omair Rahman and
Cassandra Raskin; and successful test firing and
characterization of the jet engine by Jason Cheng and Daniel
Frolich on campus, within one week of training.
The teams' next major step will be to execute a static hot
fire test of the jet engine and the attitude control
system.
This semester, the goal is just to get off the ground, but
Barnhart plans to have LEAPFROG continuing to jump in
coming semesters.
Team LEAPFROG: Back Row (l-
r): Lucy Hoag, Nicole Jordan, Kristina Rojdev,
Cassandra Raskin
Front Row: Allen Eramya, Jason Cheng,
Michael Rudolph, Omair Rahman, Omer Faghfoor, Morgan
Hendry, Paul Guilano, David Barnhart On team but
not in picture Alvin Garcia, Jose Martinez, Savith
Chauhan
| 
