Hypothesized Surface: Landing System for Hypothesized Surfaces – Hephaestus

INSTITUTION

Arizona State University – Polytechnic Campus (ASU)

CLASS

Tungsten Class (Spring 2024)/Iridium Class (Fall 2024)

STUDENT TEAM

ACADEMIC GUIDANCE

Josh Patton
Pavlos Mikellides
Zachary Barnes
Ravi Prakash

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Journey to a Metal World! The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a pioneer in space exploration, made a remarkable discovery in the central asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. They found an asteroid, 16-Psyche, with an unusually high metallic composition, leading them to believe it was a planet’s exposed and hardened metallic core. This unique feature of 16-Psyche has sparked a mission, named after Psyche, to explore this metal world by sending a probe to collect more information about Psyche by landing on and exploring its surface. (This paragraph can be removed if the mission’s background is already established on the website) The Landing System for Hypothesized Surfaces project is at the forefront of this mission, designing a probe that can safely land onto the speculated surfaces of 16-Psyche and dispatch the robotic explorer it will house. Team Hephaestus has addressed this goal by creating a robust steel and aluminum lander with a spherical bottom to accommodate 16-Psyche’s uneven and sloped terrain while also incorporating an electromechanical system that will aid in dispatching the robotic explorer after landing.

This work was created in partial fulfillment of the Arizona State University Capstone Course “EGR 401”. The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.asu.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.