Sparrow Project Proposal
What is Sparrows Purpose?
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Project Sparrow is a developmental test bed vehicle with the intention of developing in house Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) technology.
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This is the technology required to successfully achieve retropropulsive landings which has several components:
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Flight maneuver and landing automation.
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Thrust must be vectored and throttled to maintain the vehicle's position or vector if moving.
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Guidance must be able to compensate for small deviations due to environmental and systems response.
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Armadillo Aerospace Pixel
Winner of Level 1 Lunar Lander Challenge in 2006
Masten Space Systems Xoie
Winner of Level 2 Lunar Challenge in 2009
Masten Space Systems further R&D vehicle Xaero-B
(lead to current tech & involvement in CLPS)
How Sparrow will fulfill its purpose
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Sparrow will be A VTVL test bed vehicle to develop cradle landing technology:
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Cradle landing is a framework that allows payload attachments to improve flight system capability.
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Sparrow will be capable of precision station keeping, vertical takeoff and landing.
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The primary objectives of the Sparrow project are to demonstrate:
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The integrated system performance of the autonomous Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system,
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Terrain hazard avoidance sensors,
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The coupling of the sensors with the GNC (Sensor Fusion)
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The utilization of an integrated Main/RCS engine liquid oxygen and liquid methane propulsion system
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Masten ground crew, interns Ellen Moyer and Wyatt Rehder, prepare Xombie for a flight of Carnegie Mellon University students' sensor package for a future lunar mission
Masten Space Systems' Xombie suborbital rocket controlled by Draper Laboratory's Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) system.