Larry B. Petway
Papers
6
Total Citations
63
H-Index
4
About
Larry B. Petway is a leading researcher at NASA Langley Research Center whose work focuses on advancing lidar sensor technologies for autonomous navigation and landing in GPS-denied environments, particularly for planetary exploration. His primary contributions center on developing lidar systems for precision landing and hazard avoidance, enabling spacecraft to safely touch down on challenging terrain on the Moon, Mars, and other solar system bodies. Petway’s most influential work, "Lidar Sensors for Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance" (40 citations), established foundational concepts for NASA’s Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance (ALHAT) project. He has also pioneered coherent Doppler lidar for velocity and altitude sensing, as demonstrated in his 2017 paper (5 citations) and 2018 work on Navigation Doppler Lidar (6 citations). Notably, Petway led the first-ever closed-loop flight testing of a lidar sensor suite aboard the Morpheus rocket-propelled lander, successfully scanning a lunar-like hazard field and guiding autonomous landing—a landmark achievement documented in his 2015 paper (4 citations). His ongoing work continues to push the boundaries of lidar technologies for next-generation landing missions, making him a key figure in NASA’s efforts to enable safe, precise landings on other worlds.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Lidar Sensors for Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance40 citations · 2013
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