Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Session will start at 10 a.m. PT – Please mute your microphone and turn off your camera

Community of Practice Webinar Series – February 7, 2024

Adrienne Dove, Ph.D., University of Central Florida

Philip Metzger, Ph.D., University of Central Florida

Sean Bedford, Astrobotic

Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Welcome to the Community of Practice Webinar Series!

First, a bit of housekeeping...

• Please mute your microphone and turn off your camera

• Today’s session will be recorded

• Recordings for this and all future sessions will be posted on the Flight 

Opportunities website

• Please engage!

• Use the chat throughout the session to ask questions

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Welcome to the Community of Practice Webinar Series!

Flight Opportunities hopes these webinars will enable researchers, 

program staff, and flight providers to connect informally and share 

information

• Designed to distill and share the most important lessons learned to:

• Increase the impact of suborbital flight tests

• Transfer best practices

• Optimize the experience of current and prospective program participants

• Part of a broad effort to capture, organize, and communicate lessons learned 

by suborbital researchers

• An opportunity to hear from subject matter experts on best practices for 

preparing for suborbital flight tests

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Join us for future Community of Practice webinars!

Subscribe to our newsletter for 

updates on future webinars!

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/fli

ghtopportunities/newsletter

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Future webinars

• Webinars are held 1st Wednesday of each 

month at 10 a.m. PT

• Topics will be announced in the Flight 

Opportunities newsletter and website

• Session recordings will be posted on the 

Flight Opportunities website

• Let us know session topics you would like 

to see covered

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Today’s Speakers

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Dr. Adrienne Dove

Planetary Scientist | Associate Professor

University of Central Florida

Dr. Philip Metzger

Planetary Scientist | Director, Hawking 

Center for Microgravity Research and 

Education

University of Central Florida

Sean Bedford

Director of Business Development

Astrobotic

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Community of Practice

February 2024 | Adrienne Dove and Philip Metzger

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

5

Ejecta STORM Prototype for Masten Space Systems / Astrobotic Xodiac

Nov. 11, 2020

Technology Development Team

PI Dr. Philip Metzger, UCF

Co-I Dr. Adrienne Dove, UCF

Astrobotic

Laser 

Assembly

S/C 

Interface 

Assembly

Camcorder 

Mount

GoPro 

Mount

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Ejecta STORM Requirements and FOP Test Objectives

Flight Requirements/Objectives Technology Advancement

• Flights on the MSS Xodiac will simulate lunar landing profiles

• Landing surfaces will be constructed to best reproduce lunar landing 

conditions, i.e. with a consolidated surface underneath a regolith 

with specific particle size distributions 

• Determine Camera Settings, Lighting, Plume Conditions, Look-Angles, 

Generic Vehicle Integration

• The proposed flight program will demonstrate 

1. Integration with a lander

2. Operation in flight conditions with simulated 

lunar plume effects

• Instrument will be TRL 6 post-flight

Nov. 11, 2020

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

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More dust above 

the surface 

Less dust close to 

the surface 

Beam spots on 

the surface

Variations of dust 

density over small 

spatial scales

Very dense near 

the surface so 

the beams are 

extincted

Results from First Flight Campaign

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More Results from First Flight Campaign

Beamspots after 

engine cutoff to 

calibrate reflectivity of 

soil under the dust

Less dust during second flight but still 

see erosion close to the surface

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

7

Benefits/Outcome of Flight

• Validated that lasers can be seen (except violet)

– In bright ambient sunlight

– In a range of dust-blowing conditions as expected in lunar landings

• Validated camera settings (frame speed, shutter speed, zoom, 

etc.)

• Demonstrated that flight vibration does not disrupt the 

videography

• Validated camera and laser pointing

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Problems Found & Need for Reflight • Laser alignment was inadequate – lasers are not parallel which makes data 

reduction more difficult

• Violet laser was not visible in the video in bright ambient sunlight 

(combination of camera sensitivity in that band and violet content of 

ambient light near noon)

– Need higher power violet laser

– Or need camera more sensitive in that band

• The first four flights perfected the arrangement of regolith on and near 

the launch pad to make the effects lunar-like despite the terrestrial 

atmosphere, but now we need to take better data with the perfected 

setup

– It was impossible to predict before the flight campaign how to arrange the 

regolith due to lack of understanding of the same physics that this sensor is 

designed to measure

– Therefore, we had to use trial-and-error to perfect the method

• Desire to use more variation in cameras to match the CLPS cameras 

including the SCALPSS camera to provide direct support of that payload

• Due to pre-flight hardware failure we were unable to test the on/off 

circuitry in Ejecta STORM. Had to rely on a hardwired switch at the last 

minute. Need to retest with improved control circuitry active.

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

8

Results of Reflight Campaign

• Successfully flew four flights. Sensor operated well each flight.

• Still had problems with remote on/off circuitry due to brightness of sunlight in Mojave 

washing out the IR sensor. Not sure why it works in Florida but not in Mojave. 

• Violet laser with higher power had to be adjusted further after delivery to Mojave to 

account for the bright sky. Successfully had visible violet laser in the Mojave as-installed 

conditions. Results of using violet laser still being assessed. Will affect design of flight 

system for lunar landings.

• Laser alignment mechanism was improved. Demonstrated adjustment of lasers after 

delivery to Mojave to obtain nearly parallel beams.

• Regolith arrangement methods were improved based upon first flight campaign. Plume flow 

was smoother across the regolith and dust was blown in a smooth sheet as desired.

• Ongoing image analysis post-flight. Using more advanced methods to extract laser 

brightness data along each segment of the beam. 

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Regolith Preparation for Reflights

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

9

Rocket Blowing Regolith

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Regolith Before First Reflight

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

10

Regolith After First Reflight

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Before & After Final Reflight

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

11

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Community of Practice

February 2024 | Sean Bedford

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LOW-COST FLIGHT TESTING

UNPARALLELED TRACK RECORD

PRECISION FLIGHT AND LANDING

VERSATILE TESTING CAPABILITIES

CLOSED-LOOP TESTING

Comprehensive test campaigns including integration, tethered tests, 

and a free flight for less than $600K per campaign

Xodiac has been in operation since 2015, flying over 160 VTVL flights 

without a mishap

Equipped with Astrobotic’s proprietary SENSEITM system, which allows 

payloads to control the vehicle within acceptable bounds

Flight testing for emerging technology, descent and landing simulation, 

plume-surface interactions and unimproved surface landing tests

Flight-proven avionics and controls systems enable close adherence to 

a desired flight profile and landings within 2cm of a target 

XODIAC ROCKET LANDER

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

12

XODIAC ROCKET LANDER

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Height 3.4 m

Fuselage Diameter 0.7 m

Payload Mass 50 kg

Std. Payload Volume 100 L

Max. Speed 25 m/s

Max. Altitude 500 m

Max. Range 800 m

Max. Flight Duration 120 s

Landing Precision 2 cm

Successful Flights 160+

Payload Bottle

Standard payload bottle is 14” 

tall x 24” diameter; custom 

mounting options also available

Closed-Loop Testing

SENSEITM Hypervisor system 

allows payloads to effectively 

control the vehicle in flight

Rapidly Reusable

Has flown as many as five flights 

in one day with no-touch 

maintenance between flights

Scimitar Engine

Throttleable 1,200-lbf LOX-IPA 

engine enables carefully 

controlled descent and hovering

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Leveraging Iterative Flight Testing to Advance Dust Sensor to Aid in Lunar Landings

Adrienne Dove

Philip Metzger

Sean Bedford

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/

13

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

25 www.nasa.gov

Thank you! 

Flight Opportunities website: 

http://nasa.gov/flightopportunities

Contact us:

NASA-FlightOpportunities@mail.nasa.gov

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