{"id":246756,"date":"2026-11-06T14:11:44","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T20:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/nasa-navigation-experiment-shows-promise-for-planetary-landings"},"modified":"2026-11-06T14:11:44","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T20:11:44","slug":"nasa-navigation-experiment-shows-promise-for-planetary-landings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/nasa-navigation-experiment-shows-promise-for-planetary-landings","title":{"rendered":"NASA navigation experiment shows promise for planetary landings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NASA has successfully demonstrated technology designed to help spacecraft autonomously navigate to safe landing sites on the moon and on other planets. An Alta-X drone equipped with the agency\u2019s Safe and Precise Landing\u2014Integrated Capabilities Evolution (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/safe-and-precise-landing-integrated-capabilities-evolution-splice\/\" target=\"_blank\">SPLICE<\/a>) guidance, navigation and control payload completed simulated lunar descent and landing maneuvers Aug. 27. The flight took place at Rogers Dry Lake near NASA\u2019s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.<\/p>\n<p>During the tests, the SPLICE payload used an advanced guidance system to map the terrain and assess potential landing areas. If the system determines the targeted landing area is unsafe, the system diverts the drone to a safer location. The system generates high-resolution digital elevation maps from light-detection and sensor data.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston developed the SPLICE payload and partnered with specialists at NASA Armstrong to integrate, test and fly it aboard the Alta-X drone in June and July. Those tests verified communications, data handling, telemetry and command-and-control performance between the SPLICE payload and the drone to prepare for a full-scale test at Voyager Technologies in Mojave, California, later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASA has successfully demonstrated technology designed to help spacecraft autonomously navigate to safe landing sites on the moon and on other planets. An Alta-X drone equipped with the agency\u2019s Safe and Precise Landing\u2014Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) guidance, navigation and control payload completed simulated lunar descent and landing maneuvers Aug. 27. The flight took place at [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1488,1965,6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drones","category-mapping","category-robotics-ai","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}