NASA's Sensor for Distant Landings

Not an art exhibit: NASA's Rogers Dry Lake test site with potentially hazardous objects that sensors have to navigate. Credit: NASA/Tony Landis.

On August 19, NASA reported that it was working on distant landing systems that will enable spacecraft to land remotely on other planets and celestial bodies: "NASA is developing technologies that will allow landing vehicles to automatically identify and navigate to the location of a safe landing site while detecting landing hazards during the final descent to the surface. This is important because future missions -- whether to the Moon, an asteroid, Mars or other location -- will need this capability to land safely near specific resources that are located in potentially hazardous terrain."