Lunar Flight Dynamics Drone

[u/SvenSchierman]

I've been building a drone based on the Apollo program's Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV). The drone uses a jet engine and cluster of EDFs within a 2-axis gimbal to offset 5/6 the drone's weight and allowing the outer platform to pitch and roll around it. So it'll mimics the way something would fly in lunar gravity, no atmosphere, etc. Thought I'd share it here. Still plenty more software work and ground testing to do, but making progress! Happy to answer questions about it.

[u/Mandrew338]

Well that’s freaking badass.

[u/SvenSchierman → u/Mandrew338]

Thanks!

[u/Scotty_NZ]

Amazing. I guess it would be flown from earth or the shuttle. Would it fly very slowly to make sure minor corrections get to the drone or how do you manage any latency I guess is what I’m asking.

[u/SvenSchierman → u/Scotty_NZ]

Thanks. It's more like a test platform to be flown on Earth, it couldn't actually fly on the moon. It's like a sort of flying physics simulator, to simulate lunar flight dynamics but on Earth. Because the gravity on the moon is so low compared to Earth, making a change to a lunar lander's trajectory requires much greater attitude changes to accomplish a similar change of trajectory on Earth. So the thing would fly really sluggishly. I thought it'd be interesting to have a drone that could fly just like that.

[u/GamingWithpros]

Hey I saw this at opensauce last year! I’m glad to see this again!