LS2 Suite
Customized options for your lander and payload.
From small payloads at
to full size lunar landers,
We have you covered.
An in-depth look at the
First-Principles approach
to the LS2 Suite and
all the options we
offer for your Mission.
No legs, no limits,
the beauty of LS2
is in its simplicity.
FRAME
Polyhedral Structure
The Structural Integrity.
Engineered as an icosahedron to grant unrestricted landing attitude. The shape provides omnidirectional assurance for any touchdown angle.
VERTICES
Energy Dampers
The Impact
Mitigator.
Each vertex received the full load and dissipates up to 3.05 kJ, reducing 70-85% of peak shock to safeguard your lander and sensitive payloads.
GIMBAL
Passive Stabilizer
The Self-Righting System.
360° mechanism requires zero power, sensors, or software. Frangible links shear on impact, freeing the gimbal for immediate, adaptive upright stability.
CAMERAS
Integrated Navigation
The Critical
View.
Optional passive cameras integrated within up to 10 vertices provide continuous visual telemetry across the entire mission and deliver real-time insight.
The LS2-Suite
A four-part collection of Lunar Landing Stabilization Systems, each with a different design and specific purpose.
From full-size lunar landers to small university research payloads, the LS2-Suite is mission ready for your team.
LS2-Core: Lunar Landers
Full-scale bolt-on stabilizer for large lunar landers designed to replace traditional rigid landing legs and provides passive, omnidirectional protection and self-righting during touchdown. LS2-Core works with the lander’s existing propulsion system so that the vehicle and its primary payload arrive upright and stable, even on slopes or uneven terrain.
LS2-Pod: Large Commercial Payloads
Independent 1-meter-class payload protection system. It can remain attached to a lander or be ejected during terminal descent to handle the final non-propulsive portion of the trajectory on its own. The Pod is intended to protect individual high-value payloads (science instruments, technology demonstrations, ISRU equipment, etc.) so they can survive and operate even if the host lander experiences tip-over or off-nominal conditions. Currently in active prototype build and testing.
LS2-U: University & Small Business Focus
A standardized, open-interface platform derived from the LS2-Pod architecture. It is intended to carry multiple smaller (CubeSat-class) payloads, potentially with a shared power and data bus, and with the option for individual payloads to be released onto the surface. The goal is to provide a reliable, lower-barrier path for universities, small companies, and international partners to deliver research hardware to the lunar surface.
LS2-Mini: Making the Moon Reachable
LS2-Core Mission Profile
Rooted in first-principles physics: momentum, energy dissipation, geometry, and low gravity. LS2 delivers deterministic success for your lander across any low-gravity surface.
The Four Phases of Secure Upright Landing:
Phase 1: Terminal Descent
LS2 maintains structural alignment for a touchdown speed of 1 to 6 m/s, utilizing your lander’s thrusters. This ensures the system is optimized for powered braking maneuvers.
Phase 2: Initial Contact & Mitigation
Upon touchdown, the system absorbs 70-85% of peak forces across its structure, fully protecting your lander and sensitive payload. This is achieved through the LS2 Cascade Effect: impact forces are exponentially divided and dissipated as they travel away from the initial contact points, eliminating structural shock before it reaches the lander.
Phase 3: Link Fracture (Gimbal Release)
Frangible links shear instantly upon impact, freeing the passive gimbal to provide immediate, adaptive self-righting (upright) stability.
Phase 4: Self-Righting & Stabilization
The frame and gimbal passively rotate, achieving assured upright posture and omnidirectional stability on uneven terrain and slopes up to 45°.
This process directly eliminates the instability failure modes inherent to
lunar landings on uneven and challenging terrain.
Landing Complete: Mission Ready
Your lander is secure and upright. LS2 is rated to enable high-value, multi-site exploration hops of 10-50 meters, leveraging residual lander propellant. This offers mission planners unprecedented flexibility for site correction or scientific exploration.
Competitive Advantage
Why LS2 Wins Where Others Struggle:
Legacy rigid legs have dominated for 70 years — but they weren’t designed for today’s autonomous, off-nominal missions.
LS2 changes that equation.
Rooted in First Principles:
We didn’t tweak legs. We asked, what does physics actually require? The answer: passive geometry, force distribution, low-gravity stability — not active crutches.
Built on First Principles,
Not Legacy Assumptions
For 70 years, landing systems have been built on the same assumption: rigid legs are necessary, terrain is forgiving, active control can fix everything.
At CrescentTide, we started from scratch and
asked the questions nobody else was:
Do we need legs at all? Why are we fighting the
Moon instead of working with it?
From those fundamentals — momentum, energy dissipation, geometry, and low gravity —
we reasoned upward.
No rigid legs. No active complexity. No assumptions.
Force Mitigation Cascade Effect
The result? A passive, polyhedral stabilization system that:
-
Distributes forces through multi-point contact
-
Absorbs and cascades shock via layered vertices
-
Self-rights via pendulum effect in low gravity
-
Stabilizes on equilateral triangular faces once settled
-
Enables multi-site hops with residual propellant
This isn’t incremental improvement. It’s ruthless reduction to physics basics and fearless rebuilding; from fragile, one-shot landings to assured, mobile, multi-mission capability for your lander and payloads.
We don’t build landers or payloads, we enable the companies that do so you can focus on propulsion, avionics, science, mining, ISRU, and the stars.
LS2 isn’t just hardware; it’s a declaration that we can do better by thinking harder and starting over when the old way is broken. Partner with us to make the impossible routine.
Partner with CrescentTide:
Tailored solutions for landers, payloads, and the new lunar economy: integration, licensing, and manufacturing support that keeps you at the center.
INTEGRATION CONSULTING
The Expert Partner
Use our leadership team for structural analysis, LS2 integration, mission assurance, and TRL advancement. We partner to assure your lander and payloads arrive ready to work.
TECHNOLOGY LICENSING
Strategic Access
Secure flexible licensing agreements for LS2 framework and gimbal mechanism. Gain access to a passive, proven stabilization system that enhances without redesign.
COLLABORATIVE
MANUFACTURING
Scalable Production
Partner with our supply chain experts to integrate LS2
into your manufacturing pipeline. Scalable production for landers and payloads with quality and speed you can trust.