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Nasa's Morpheus lander hasn't had the most auspicious run of tests. An early model of
the ambitious Vertical lander, designed to heft 500kg around the surface of the moon,
Mars and beyond, exploded on launch in august 2012. But Nasa have been beavering away behind
the scenes and their latest test run is looking a lot more impressive, it's highest and fastest
ascent so far to nearly 200 metres and back in 83 seconds.
The lander is a tech test-bed for the next generation of interplanetary exploration.
It's fuelled by methane and liquid oxygen, an extremely cheap and readily available fuel
source that's relatively eco-friendly, but could also possibly be produced from the lunar
and martian soil - meaning any launch wouldn't have to carry fuel for the return journey,
saving billions of dollars a shot.
It's also got an impressive lift capability, being designed even at this stage to haul
500kg off the lunar surface in an extremely compact, relatively efficient package. Future
versions will be able to heft habitat modules to and around the moon - as the system is
also designed to be reusable.
OK, so bimbling around a Florida airstrip isn't quite fuel refining on Mars, but it's
a pretty interesting idea.