Challenge
In support of NASA’s Project Morpheus, the project required a heavy-lift helicopter to install and integrate the Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) System. This project supported NASA’s development of technologies to allow landing vehicles to automatically identify, navigate, and land, while detecting hazards during the final descent to the surface. The S-64 Air Crane® helicopter and our expert engineers were the obvious choices for selection.
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Solution
The project required Erickson engineers to design, integrate, install and test a structural support system to mount the ALHAT FT4 Pod (a steel container roughly 7’x7’x10’) to include a power source (batteries), computing equipment, and sensing devices that use lasers to detect general terrain and landing hazards. This also required a support assembly in the Aft Seat area to include two computer monitors to be used by a NASA/JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) engineer during testing to monitor the flight and instrument readings.
