[ Music ]
>> The technologies that COBALT is testing right now will one
day enable NASA to send robotic or human space flight missions
to land on Mars, the moon,
Europa or other solar system destinations where we want
to target landing in very hazardous or precise regions
such as canyons, craters, on cracked ice fields,
close to geysers or other geological
or scientifically interesting locations.
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So COBALT stands for Cooperative Blending
of Autonomous Landing Technologies.
The project is focused on integrating
and testing two complementary sensors or instruments;
one the Lander Vision System, LVS,
and the other the Navigation Doppler Lidar, NDL.
[ Music ]
>> And the way it works it actually uses its camera
to take images as it's coming in to land
and compares them to its onboard map.
And by doing that you can actually now determine
where you are on the map of where you're trying to land.
So that allows you to do a number of things.
One, it allows you to actually more precisely determine your
actual position coming into landing,
and then you can actually do diverts to actually land
where you want to land.
It also allows you to detect and notice things like hazards
and actually divert around those hazards as you come into land.
>> Laser coming on.
>> And give the spacecraft essentially a set of eyes,
so as it's coming in to land it's actually enabling its
process in its computer to see where it's actually going.
>> Lasers on.
>> We'll be conducting two different flight campaigns
within COBALT.
One is open loop and the other is closed loop,
the difference being that during open loop the vehicle is not
utilizing COBALT's navigation for planning its maneuvers.
It's instead utilizing GPS.
During the closed loop campaign,
the vehicle will actually rely on COBALT navigation.
>> Ok, team moving to engine start page.
>> COBALT!
This is LC.
Go/no-go for flight?
>> Go.
>> Pilot prime engine.
>> Priming engine.
[ Music ]
>> Ok, team, here we go.
Masten ops to all, six-second countdown.
Five, four, three, two, one.
Ignition.
[ Music ]
>> During our flight testing, we take off at one location
and then we target a landing site that's 300 meters away.
On takeoff, we ascend up to a 500-meter altitude.
During that time, our Navigation Doppler Lidar begins sensing
velocity and range within the first five meters of altitude.
The Lander Vision System begins performing train row
to navigation at about 50 to 100 meters altitude.
So during the ascent, we're getting initial measurements
and starting to generate the COBALT navigation solution.
After we reach the 500-meter altitude,
the vehicle reduces the engine throttle, the engine thrust,
and starts falling back towards the Earth to build up velocity.
Once we hit a 25 meter per second downward velocity,
the executed divert maneuver
that targets specified landing location 300 meters down range.
The vehicle then navigates until about a 20-meter altitude
above that landing site,
and then executes a vertical descent to touchdown.
This is all autonomous on Masten's GPS-based navigation
for open loop and then during closed loop
on COBALT's navigation.
[ Music ]
>> Booyah!
>> Alright!
>> Yeah!
[ Talking at once ]
[ Applause ]
>> Well done, sir.
Well done.
>> So Masten is out here at the Mojave Space Port.
We're supporting NASA's [inaudible] opportunities
by testing different technologies here in the desert
that are hopefully land on another planet one day.
So when you have your payload and it's going to go land
on Mars, it's really nice to know how it's going to function
in that landing environment.
Propulsive landing specifically was something we have not done
on another planet yet.
So instead of taking the risk of sending something all the way
to Mars and not knowing how well it works, we can come out here
in the desert, plot opportunities,
provides the payload with the ability to come onto our rockets
and do a similar type profile
to what they will see when they go to land.
>> Alright, guys!
Great job today!
[ Applause ]
>> Great flight!
>> Let's take it home!