A recent NASA article about the landing hazards faced by the six Apollo landers describes just how challenging it is to find a "safe" place to land on the lunar surface. (See Four Out of Six Apollos Recommend ALHAT)

This article highlights the importance of Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) as well as the desirable aspects of a good Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) system.

Next Giant Leap team member, Draper Laboratory, has extensive history in GN&C dating back to the original Apollo Landings. Critical technologies including GN&C and ALHAT are being developed under Draper’s Independent Research and Development (IR&D) program. Their goal is to develop and mature an autonomous lunar landing GN&C and sensing system for robotic lunar descent vehicles that is capable of identifying and avoiding surface hazards and enabling a safe, precision landing within tens of meters of certified and designated landing sites anywhere on the moon under any lighting conditions.

Additional reading: Draper Laboratory "Explorations" - Spring 2007