VTB Flight Complex

Distances from Surroundings

Morpheus is being tested at the VTB Flight Complex at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Careful consideration has been given to the surroundings when planning thrust levels and future trajectories. While we don't expect any complications, Morpheus has mutliple safety controls including onboard soft abort systems and a wireless Flight Termination System. In addition, during a free flight spotters are being placed in multiple locations to insure that if the vehicle goes outside of the established flight path - the engine will be immediately shut down.

The VTB Flight Complex has three different pads that will be used for Morpheus testing. The single pad on the west end of the complex is used for both hot fire and tethered tests. A crane is used during both

Tower View Panorama

Credit: NASA/Joe Bibby

tethered and hot fire testing. During hot fire testing the vehicle is also strapped to the ground. This allows the vehicle to remain virtually motionless during engine firings. The other two pads are used for free flights. During a free flight Morpheus will fly up to a height of around 30m, then translate over to the western pad and descend for a soft landing.

About Morpheus

Morpheus is a vertical test bed vehicle demonstrating new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. Designed, developed, manufactured and operated in-house by engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Morpheus Project represents not only a vehicle to advance technologies, but also an opportunity to try out “lean development” engineering practices.

Morpheus Test Firing

Credit: NASA/Joe Bibby

Morpheus is a NASA-designed vehicle. It was manufactured and assembled at JSC and Armadillo Aerospace. Morpheus is large enough to carry 1,100 pounds of cargo to the moon – for example, a humanoid robot, a small rover, or a small laboratory to convert moon dust into oxygen – performing all propellant burns after the trans lunar injection. The primary focus of the test bed is to demonstrate an integrated propulsion and guidance, navigation and control system that can fly a lunar descent profile to exercise the Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) safe landing sensors and closed-loop flight control. Additional objectives include technology demonstrations – for instance, tank material and manufacture, reaction control thrusters, main engine performance improvements, helium pressurization systems, ground operations, flight operations, range safety, software and avionics architecture.