Aerospace Engineering Seminar

This seminar talk addresses spinning landers, a novel concept for safely landing and hopping on unimproved surfaces virtually anywhere in the solar system. It was first conceived in the early 1960s by space industry pioneer and Caltech alumnus Harold Rosen, but not applied to an actual mission design until 2007-2008 as a Google Lunar X PRIZE entry.

The overall spinning lander concept has been patented and is now being further developed and marketed by Pasadena-based Ecliptic Enterprises Corporation. Assessments of various spinning lander concepts for solar system exploration were conducted by Ecliptic during 2010-2011, and by Ecliptic and JPL during 2011-2012. Starting in 2013, with the increased popularity of the CubeSat standard for deep-space mission applications, Ecliptic has been investigating spacecraft and mission concepts for CubeSat-class spinning landers.

This presentation will summarize the genesis, development and mission applications of the spinning lander concept and highlight the recent CubeSat-class investigations, including lunar mission point designs. Suggestions for future work will also be offered.