September 16, 2011 03:03 am EDT

Purdue University grad students give NASA lander tech a boost, do it for the experience

We just learned of NASA's end-of-decade plans to rocket astronauts into deep space for exploratory missions to Mars and beyond. Now, we're getting a peek at the Purdue University-designed lander tech that'll plant our space fleet's feet firmly on terra incognita. What originally started as a senior research project for grad students Thomas Feldman and Andrew Rettenmaier, has now blossomed into a joint research endeavor for the federal space agency's Project Morpheus -- a think tank for trips to heretofore unexplored celestial bodies. The in-development propulsion tech, now undergoing testing at the university's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, is required to "meet stringent design and performance" standards, but most importantly, needs to lift the fuel-depleted lander post-descent. You'd think scientific work of this magnitude would come with a hefty paycheck, but the student team behind it all's just doing it for the hands-on knowledge. Sure beats your summer internship at that magazine, huh?

Purdue University grad students give NASA lander tech a boost, do it for the experience originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

PermalinkPhysOrg | Purdue University ||Comments

Original Link: http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/15/purdue-university-grad-students-give-nasa-lander-tech-a-boost-d/

View Full Article

Engadget

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics. Engadget was launched in March of 2004 in partnership with the Weblogs, Inc. Network (WI

More About this Source Visit Engadget