The nighttime sky above NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center was quite a striking sight on May 28 as NASA ’s Morpheus prototype lander was sent over 800 feet ( 244 meters ) into the air , trail by a fountain of brightly colored flames . Thisfree - flight of stairs testwas the first of its kind , target at investigate the capabilities of NASA ’s Autonomous Landing Hazard Avoidance Technology ( ALHAT ) which serves to improve landing on other planets .

Morpheus , a robotic ballistic capsule designed as a vertical testbed for ballistic capsule engineering , was found into the melodic line as part of a98 - second testwhich successfully certify that NASA can safely land an unmanned space vehicle   on rocky surface using only ALHAT ’s Hazard Detection System as a guide .

TheHazard Detection Systemuses light catching and ranging ( lidar ) detector to site hazardous obstacles , such as crater or magnanimous rocks , in Holy Order to guide a space vehicle to a secure place for touchdown .

During the test , the system aimed its sensor at a lunar - same luck field site around a quarter Roman mile from the Kennedy Center . It then scan the area and sire a arial mosaic of lidar look-alike which were subsequently run up together to make a 3D map of the landing web site . This map was then analyzed by the system to cull the safest landing spot and with assistance from the Doppler lidar , which quantify the space vehicle ’s altitude and velocity , Morpheus successfully alight in the exam subject field .

“ The newsflash lidar performed very well , and we could clearly key out rocks as small as one foot in size from the largest chain of mountains that Morpheus could give us , which was approximately a quarter air mile , ” said Eric Roback , ALHAT flash lidar lead technologist , in anews - spill . “ With this detector we could even find the safest landing internet site in a pitch black crater . ”

NASA believesthat this organisation could be used in next ventures to deliver cargo to global surface . Furthermore , according to Roback , it would allow space vehicle to set ashore near the most scientifically interesting spot and also near the resourcefulness necessary for the colonisation of other major planet .

learn out this awesome footage of the outcome released by NASA Kennedy :