The rocket-powered leap was the show, but the onboard Landing and Hazard Avoidance System was the star. The artificial pilot guided the test vehicle a distance of 300 meters; there it hovered momentar-ily, then settled safely among the sandbags that stood in for lunar boulders. That was three years ago. In June 2014, the developer of this computerized vision system, Astrobotic Technology, was hugging the inside rail in the latest race to the moon, one set in motion by the $20 million Google Lunar XPRIZE.
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