Landing System for Hypothesized Surfaces – Rock-teers

INSTITUTION

University of Texas – Tyler (UTT)

CLASS

Platinum Class (2025 – 2026)

STUDENT TEAM

ACADEMIC GUIDANCE

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Psyche Landing System project focuses on the conceptual design, analysis, and validation of a landing mechanism capable of achieving a safe and stable touchdown on NASA’s Psyche asteroid. Unlike traditional planetary landings, Psyche presents unique engineering challenges due to its extremely low gravity (0.144 m/s²), metallic composition, and irregular surface topology. The objective of this project is to design a structurally sound, lightweight landing system that can absorb impact energy, prevent rebound, and securely anchor itself to the asteroid’s surface.

 

This work was created in partial fulfillment of the University of Texas – Tyler Capstone Course “MENG 4215/6.” The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.ssl.berkeley.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.