Propulsion
Hybrid rocket engine
Throttleable main engine on a gimbal for pitch and yaw control, without hydrazine.
The Leap Hopper
A rocket-powered drone for lunar exploration
Fast, autonomous and able to land anywhere: the Leap Hopper maps the surface in flight and reaches terrain no rover can.
Specifications
Vehicle overview
A rocket-powered lunar drone that flies a mapping cruise or a series of ballistic hops, lands in craters and permanently shadowed regions, and fits on any lander.
- Mass
- 40 kg, plus 10 kg deployment mechanism
- Payload
- 10 kg, included in vehicle mass
- Propulsion
- Gimballed hybrid rocket engine, roll-control thrusters
- Structure
- Lightweight, shock-absorbing landing gear
- Range · one of three profiles
- Mapping cruise: 16 km at 1 km altitude
- Hops: 7 × 1.5 km, landing between hops
- Long hop: up to 50 km (maximum range)
- Mapping
- About 4 km² at 15 cm resolution during the mapping cruise
- Navigation
- In-house GNC: LiDAR, camera and IMU
- Compatibility
- All commercial and institutional landers, any landing site
Coverage vs. resolution
Bridging the gap between orbiters and rovers
Orbiters map the complete lunar surface at meter scale. Rovers see centimetres, but only a football field. The Leap Hopper maps square kilometres at 15 cm resolution in a single mission.
Technology
Built and flown in-house
We de-risk the most critical technologies early with working prototypes, and develop our own guidance, navigation and control.
Navigation & guidance
GNC demonstrator
3-beam FMCW LiDAR, terrain-matching camera and IMU. Camera and DEM above 200 m; LiDAR closes the loop to touchdown.
Control
Flight profiles
One propellant load, three ways to fly it: a 16 km mapping cruise, seven 1.5 km hops, or one hop of up to 50 km. Model predictive control throughout.
Fly your instrument on the Leap Hopper
10 kg of payload on every flight, plus high-resolution data from our own sensor suite.