US firm plans lunar landing

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2004-12-16 06:13pm

A US firm is proposing to use guided missile technology to make a precision, automated landing on the Moon.
Raytheon has outlined plans for a low-cost lunar lander that uses elements from missiles designed to intercept and destroy enemy warheads fired at the US.

It could be used for low-cost missions within President Bush's Moon-to-Mars vision for space exploration.

Engineers explained the proposal at this year's American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco, US.

On its journey to the Moon, the lander will be attached to a cruise stage which handles navigation and other tasks.

The vehicle would use a re-plumbed version of the propulsion system used by Raytheon's "kill vehicle" missiles.

About two minutes before impact on the Moon, a solid rocket booster reduces the vehicle's speed to 300-450 m/s.The lander itself activates about a minute before impact.

This mimics the operational timeline used for missiles over decades.

The lander is guided to precise coordinates by a Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator (DSMAC). This acquires high-resolution images which are compared with a reference map of the landing site in real time.

Data from the images and from the vehicle's altimeter are then processed to help guide the vehicle to its target. The images taken on the way down can also be used to help scientists study the landing site's geology.

Precision landing

"[Nasa's] navigation requirements, specifically where they wanted to land on the lunar surface, became much more precise," Raytheon vice-president for advanced missile defense Michael Booen told the BBC News website.

"So we said we've got a pretty precise navigation capability to put our precision munitions in exactly the right coordinates."

The kill vehicles are a key component of the Pentagon's planned multi-billion dollar shield against warheads fired at the US.

They are designed to destroy incoming long-range ballistic missiles during the "midcourse" of their flight - before they re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

However, the so-called ground-based midcourse defense (GMD) system suffered a setback on Wednesday with the failure of its first full flight test in two years. The interceptor missile shut down automatically in its silo due to an "unknown anomaly".

The proposed Moon lander is more suitable for relatively small, unmanned science missions to the lunar surface.

Earlier this year, Nasa awarded Raytheon a contract of almost $1m (£512,000) to be part of a three-company team studying challenges involved in returning to the Moon, as a first step toward human exploration of Mars and other planets.

The "concept exploration and refinement" work was awarded under Project Constellation, the long-term effort to boost human space exploration.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-12-16 08:11pm

LOL, from shields to plowshares, eh?

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2004-12-16 08:29pm

MKSheppard wrote:LOL, from shields to plowshares, eh?

Then all those billions of dollars were used for something useful after all...

Mange · Post by **Mange** » 2004-12-17 03:25pm

Sounds like a very interesting idea! Go for it, Raytheon!

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2004-12-17 09:36pm

told ya the megacorps would do it

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2004-12-17 10:21pm

Hands up if you just know some ex-hippie loony is going to run out screaming on AM talk radio "They're going to nuke the moon!" as soon as he hears this?

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2004-12-17 10:35pm

so what? it will look like the moon?

Tom_Aurum · Post by **Tom_Aurum** » 2004-12-18 03:15pm

Not that I have much confidence in these people... but good luck to em' anyways. Something about that mission just seems a little too high-impact. Granted, the best interplanetary fuel out there is something that apparently the moon has in abundance. Helium-3. We just need to figure out that whole fusion thing...

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2004-12-19 08:32am

Crayz9000 wrote:Hands up if you just know some ex-hippie loony is going to run out screaming on AM talk radio "They're going to nuke the moon!" as soon as he hears this?

"On July 4th of this year, America will blow up the moon."