Design and Demonstration of a Lander Testbed using a single Bipropellant Throttled Engine

A diminutive lander test-bed using a single bipropellant throttled engine was devised and constructed to enable vertical takeoff and vertical landing flight demonstration. Mission design and systems were designed to encompass a diversity of commands that could be executed during exploration missions. Avionics and ground control station were designed similarly to the experiment achieved in previous literature while propulsion and structure had to be designed, developed, and tested before launch. The flight control system was designed using FASTECH software for linear motors and then connected to the valve by a cable. The propulsion system propellant flow test and bipropellant test were achieved in a horizontal testbed by throttling the oxidizer and fuel line. Then the previous system was assembled with the other subsystems onto the structure.