By Rebecca Boyle Posted 02.29.2012 at 5:01 pm 11 Comments

Project Morpheus Launch Project Morpheus hot fire #5 was successful earlier this week. NASA

NASA’s Project M, an awesome concept to use vertical launch systems to send robonauts to the moon, is still moving forward despite Robonaut’s one-way trip to the International Space Station. It’s now called Project Morpheus, and it’s a test bed for autonomous, environmentally friendly vertical launch systems. Watch below as Morpheus fires its new engine for the first time.

The spacecraft is capable of carrying 1,100 pounds of cargo to the moon, possibly a robonaut, a rover or a moon-dust lab, according to its designers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. And it can do it all autonomously.

The best part is its propulsion system, which is fueled by methane and liquid oxygen. Methane is a waste gas on the ISS and could also conceivably be harvested from ice in lunar craters or at the Martian poles. So it would be cheap to fill up small launchers like Morpheus for sample-return trips, something this country has never done before. It could be configured to land on an asteroid, too.

Engineers at Armadillo Aerospace, which aims to send up its own vertical takeoff rockets, built the prototype according to NASA designs. The team tried out its new engine for the first time Monday, with Morpheus tethered to a tower so it couldn’t take off on its own. This is the fifth “hot fire” test, but the first with this engine.

In the face of painful budget cuts, it’s nice to see new launchers like this are still in NASA’s future. Here’s hoping Morpheus brings some robonauts to the moon after all.

[via IEEE Spectrum]

11 Comments

Link to this comment
beefymclovin
02/29/12 at 11:43 pm

so in theory, u could send up a few dozen to land in the same general area on the moon. land astro-nuts there to set up a moon base?

Link to this comment
spencer5160
03/01/12 at 12:10 am

Why is the moon so special I have always wondered? Do we put all of our nuclear trash there? Hide some old WMDs? A grave yard? Or is it going to be Sir Richard Brasons new Island? I'd really like to see an article on why we need to go to the moon!

Link to this comment
Robot
03/01/12 at 12:56 am

The moon is special, because of our own imagination and of all the things in the world we have not touched and experience. The moon is only a point in the sky. We humans wish to touch all we can as much as possible large and absolutely small. Why we are like this I do not know. I only know, it persist!

Perhaps this is a Earth born trait. Maybe it was put in us for the Annunaki or GODs. The source of our human curiosity and adventure attitude is a mystery as our desire to fulfill it.

Personally, I love and admire and enjoy this trait!
WOWzers!

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

Link to this comment
Lazarus
03/01/12 at 2:20 am

Well considering its the closest celestial body to the earth, it would be easier to land on the moon and colonize it instead of having to spend that much more money on trying it with mars.

"Even if a pawn becomes a queen, it is still just a playing piece.."

Link to this comment
Robot
03/01/12 at 9:22 am

As much as they are bragging methane is a waste gas and the development of a powerful rocket type engine, one cannot do much with methane without oxygen, which is very much NOT a waste gas and we humans seem addicted to the stuff.

Not a lot of oxygen out there on the Moon, Mars and other cosmic objects. Seem where ever we go, we be carting along oxygen too.

Perhaps we need a engine that does not use gases.

Wow, that first sentence was a real run-on sentence, lol.

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

Link to this comment
rettaH_daM
03/01/12 at 1:42 pm

@beefy:

Why the moon? Same reason as back in the 60's. Humans are explorers. Why? It's in our genes. Homo Sapiens exist because our ancestors liked to roam. This was a good thing for survival - new food sources, reduced competition for old food sources, but mainly it spread us out. Humans scattered across six continents have a better chance of survival.

How is this relevant to going to the moon, you ask? I think Stephen Hawking has covered this more than a few times. For humans to survive long-term, we must at some point leave Earth. The destruction of Earth*, whether by ourselves or by natural disaster, is inevitable. The ability to leave Earth and safely land on another planet critical to survival, so why not start practicing now on our conveniently-close neighbor?

*By "destruction", I'm referring to an Earth no longer habitable by humans and possibly other life forms. Earth, as a planet, will continue on its merry way with our without us.

Link to this comment
calebscape808
03/01/12 at 2:44 pm

You have a point, an engine like the new gen plasma engines that run off magnetic fields and Nobel gasses is a much better idea, although we would need more powerful batteries for it, and its specific impulse is too weak to really get it off a planet, for now we seem stuck with oxidizing fuels, if only we could use hydrogen peroxide and use only the heat energy with 90% efficiency and keep the water and oxygen.

MARS OR BUST!!!!

The less we leave up to others is the more we command our lives

Link to this comment
Robot
03/01/12 at 4:31 pm

calebscape808,
Yup, warp drive has not been invented yet, but it would be so wonderful to be zooming about the cosmos without an oxidizing fuel as you put it.
Oh, I would adore going to Mars, but I have no desire in the journey to go bust... um, not me, nope, no way, nada...
.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.

Link to this comment
Ruri
03/01/12 at 7:33 pm

@spencer5160

The moon is so special because it litterally is a stepping stone to the rest of the solar system.

It's over eight times easier to get material off the moon then it is off the Earth.

If you can at least mine LOX or liquid oxygen from the moon you can pretty much go anywhere in the inner solar system with known propulsion technology.

Link to this comment
drchuck1
03/02/12 at 11:43 am

ice on the moon and mars = H2O = Hydrogen and Oxygen = fuel...i am starting to think robot just likes trolling, negative cheers

Link to this comment
Robot
03/02/12 at 10:15 pm

Chuck, you been swimming again in those lakes on moon and mars again, cool for you.

Sure it has been discovered sort of…, but until it is package and made economical, practical and available, it’s just rare elements in the dirt.

But I do hope it happens, those elements would be so useful. It would be very nice indeed!!!

.............................
Science sees no further than what it can sense.
Religion sees beyond the senses.



June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.


Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email

Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email

circ-top-header.gif
circ-cover.gif