TY - JOUR
T1 - Rebound stabilization for an asteroid lander by flexible plate design
AU - Feng, Ruoyu
AU - Yoshida, Kazuya
AU - Li, Junfeng
AU - Baoyin, Hexi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFA0706500 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Landing on small bodies like asteroids encounters great rebound uncertainties, which threatens the surface exploration and operation. This paper explores a potential solution for rebound stabilization through innovative flexible design of future landers. Specifically, we study a representative structure that assumes a flexible plate underneath current rigid landers (abbreviated as “FlexLander”). The plate is assigned to conform to the ground surface and provide large contact area. We develop an efficient dynamical model and carry out landing simulations, to reveal the lander's motion behavior and energy dissipation mechanism, also to provide instructions for the plate stiffness design. It is found that the deformable plate can remarkably tune the microgravity contact, and its stiffness exists a margin for design optimization and regulating. Finally, rebound stability of the proposed lander is evaluated over various landing attitudes, which can be found superior to that of rigid structure. The adaptivity to the rugged terrains and the up-righting requirement are also discussed for possible landing situations.
AB - Landing on small bodies like asteroids encounters great rebound uncertainties, which threatens the surface exploration and operation. This paper explores a potential solution for rebound stabilization through innovative flexible design of future landers. Specifically, we study a representative structure that assumes a flexible plate underneath current rigid landers (abbreviated as “FlexLander”). The plate is assigned to conform to the ground surface and provide large contact area. We develop an efficient dynamical model and carry out landing simulations, to reveal the lander's motion behavior and energy dissipation mechanism, also to provide instructions for the plate stiffness design. It is found that the deformable plate can remarkably tune the microgravity contact, and its stiffness exists a margin for design optimization and regulating. Finally, rebound stability of the proposed lander is evaluated over various landing attitudes, which can be found superior to that of rigid structure. The adaptivity to the rugged terrains and the up-righting requirement are also discussed for possible landing situations.
KW - Asteroid lander
KW - Flexible plate
KW - Microgravity contact
KW - Rebound stability
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ast.2022.107969
DO - 10.1016/j.ast.2022.107969
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85143251157
SN - 1270-9638
VL - 131
JO - Zeitschrift fur Flugwissenschaften und Weltraumforschung
JF - Zeitschrift fur Flugwissenschaften und Weltraumforschung
M1 - 107969
ER -