Preliminary mission profile of Hera’s Milani CubeSat

CubeSats offer a flexible and low-cost option to increase the scientific and technological return of small-body exploration missions. ESA’s Hera mission, the European component of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) international collaboration, plans on deploying two CubeSats in the proximity of binary system 65803 Didymos, after arrival in 2027. In this work, we discuss the feasibility and preliminary mission profile of Hera’s Milani CubeSat. The CubeSat mission is designed to achieve both scientific and technological objectives. We identify the design challenges and discuss design criteria to find suitable solutions in terms of mission analysis, operational trajectories, and Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GNC) design. We present initial trajectories and GNC baseline, as a result of trade-off analyses. We assess the feasibility of the Milani CubeSat mission and provide a preliminary solution to cover the operational mission profile of Milani in the close-proximity of Didymos system.     

Landing of hopping rovers on Irregularly-shaped small bodies using attitude control

A hopping rover that is driven only by internal or external attitude actuators is an ideal mobility approach for surface exploration of small solar system bodies. Without thrust control and grasping mechanisms, a hopping rover is mechanically simple to design and less prone to mechanical failures, but faces challenges during soft landing. It may rebound from the surface, causing deviations from its original landing site. In this paper, landing of a hopping rover on the surface of an asteroid is investigated, and a strategy using only attitude control to shorten the landing distance is proposed. Based on rigid body impact dynamics, the edge impact configuration is investigated in detail. The factors that affect the impact states of a cube-shaped hopping rover are studied. Then, controlled edge landing is analyzed, in which the post-impact velocity of the hopping rover is changed by controlling its attitude prior to impact. Three guidance schemes are developed, followed by attitude profile generation and finite time stable attitude control. Finally, simulations are performed on an ideal flat surface and uneven terrain. The results show that controlled edge landing can effectively reduce the landing distance and settling time, compared with uncontrolled landing. This study on hopping motion on the surface of an irregular-shaped asteroid with attitude control, can provide a reference for hopper trajectory plan in future asteroid surface explorations.     

Single crater-aided inertial navigation for autonomous asteroid landing

In this paper, a novel crater-aided inertial navigation approach for autonomous asteroid landing mission is developed. It overcomes the major deficiencies of existing approaches in the literature, which mainly focuses on the case where craters are abundant in the camera field of view. As a result, traditional crater based methods require at least three craters to achieve crater matching, which limits their application in final landing phase where craters are scarce in the camera’s field of view. In contrast, the proposed algorithm enables single crater based crater matching based on a novel 2D-3D crater re-projection model. The re-projection model adopts inertial measurements as a reference, and re-projects the 3D crater model onto descent images to achieve the matching to its counterpart. An asteroid landing simulation toolbox is developed to validate the performance of the proposed approach. Through comparison with the state-of-the-art local image feature and crater based navigation algorithms, the proposed approach is validated to achieve a competitive performance in terms of feature matching and pose estimation accuracy with a much lighter computational cost.     

小行星着陆装置着陆动力学及着陆性能分析

小行星着陆装置实现着陆器在小行星表面的着陆,其动力学及着陆性能研究对着陆装置研制具有重要意义.基于三腿式小型着陆装置,在对其结构特点及着陆策略分析的基础上,采用Lagrange方程建立了二维着陆动力学模型,模型对着陆及翻转阶段的动力学特性进行了描述,其计算结果与仿真验证较为接近且具有一致的变化趋势.在最大允许倾角为30°的着陆面上,采用仿真分析方法对着陆装置在不同着陆速度及偏航角下的着陆性能进行了统计分析,结果表明着陆装置具有良好的着陆性能.     

碎石堆构造小行星表面地形分析与仿真验证

人类迄今对太阳系小天体开展的探测包括地基、天基远距离观测和"罗塞塔号""隼鸟号"等探测器的抵近观测、着陆取样等。对具有碎石堆构造特性的小行星表面地形特性进行研究,提出了一种生成小行星表面地形仿真模型的方法,建立石块生成模型,对影响地形构造的石块幂律分布规律进行实验模拟。根据小天体着陆段导航方法验证及表面操作执行机构验证需要,选择并仿真生成了5种典型地形。实验结果表明:按照本文方法生成的仿真地形与实际探测得到的小行星表面局部地形相比一致性较好,可用于近操作任务中的着陆机构验证和地形相对导航算法初步验证。     

水上飞机水面降落全过程力学特性数值研究

数值方法模拟水上飞机的水面降落运动姿态和受力的全过程，是结合了水汽两相流、运动学和动力学的复杂问题。采用基于Fluent商用软件开发的整体运动网格方法结合VOF方法进行自由面捕捉，采用六自由度模型进行运动状态模拟，对某型水上飞机水面降落的全过程进行了数值模拟，得到了较好的模拟结果，验证了整体运动网格方法在处理水上飞机水面降落问题时具备良好的适应性。通过模拟得到过载曲线、运动状态参数和水面状况，将降落过程划分为冲击、滑水、漂浮3个阶段，并通过对各阶段的分析总结出对水面降落过程的一般性认识，以期为水上飞机的设计研发提供方法和参考。      

Deorbiter CubeSat mission design

This paper presents the mission design for a CubeSat-based active debris removal approach intended for transferring sizable debris objects from low-Earth orbit to a deorbit altitude of 100 km. The mission consists of a mothership spacecraft that carries and deploys several debris-removing nanosatellites, called Deorbiter CubeSats. Each Deorbiter is designed based on the utilization of an eight-unit CubeSat form factor and commercially-available components with significant flight heritage. The mothership spacecraft delivers Deorbiter CubeSats to the vicinity of a predetermined target debris, through performing a long-range rendezvous maneuver. Through a formation flying maneuver, the mothership then performs in-situ measurements of debris shape and orbital state. Upon release from the mothership, each Deorbiter CubeSat proceeds to performing a rendezvous and attachment maneuver with a debris object. Once attached to the debris, the CubeSat performs a detumbling maneuver, by which the residual angular momentum of the CubeSat-debris system is dumped using Deorbiter’s onboard reaction wheels. After stabilizing the attitude motion of the combined Deorbiter-debris system, the CubeSat proceeds to performing a deorbiting maneuver, i.e., reducing system’s altitude so much so that the bodies disintegrate and burn up due to atmospheric drag, typically at around 100 km above the Earth surface. The attitude and orbital maneuvers that are planned for the mission are described, both for the mothership and Deorbiter CubeSat. The performance of each spacecraft during their operations is investigated, using the actual performance specifications of the onboard components. The viability of the proposed debris removal approach is discussed in light of the results.     

基于Unity3D的月面复杂地形场景构建及模拟驾驶系统

为了验证未来复杂月面地形操控技术方案,本文基于Unity3D物理引擎对月表模型、月球物理环境以及月面光照环境进行了模拟,设计并开发了一套用于模拟月球自主进行着陆点选址以及在线航天器着陆轨迹规划的模拟系统。模拟系统的工作过程包含了：基于面阵雷达与立体相机信息融合的局部月表重建,基于3D重建结果的月表地形着陆代价的快速评估与自动着陆选址,以及使登陆器能够到达选址目标的最优燃料消耗着陆运动规划,实现了月球着陆器短距离自主选址着陆的模拟系统构建,同时也从仿真的角度初步验证了“地形重建-地形评估-自主选址-软着陆”这一自主着陆过程的可行性。     

The dynamical environments analysis of surface particles for different shaped asteroids

Asteroids are coming to be a popular topic in the areas of astrophysical studies and deep space exploration recently. However, surface dynamics of asteroids is still a difficult problem. This paper aims at the motion analysis of surface particles for different asteroids. The dynamical analysis method of particles’ movement is given for three parts: global motion trend, local motion trend and static analysis. A dimensionless parameter ζ is defined to distinguish the predominant term to determine the distribution of effective potential. Three kinds of common asteroids: spheroidal asteroid, spindle-shaped asteroid and dumbbell-shaped asteroid are all discussed for those three parts with different parameter ζ. The motion trend of particles on the surface of each kind of asteroid is given. The static analysis of surface particles for different asteroids is also illustrated. Based on them, some common rules for different shaped asteroids are revealed. This paper could not only provide a reference for asteroid exploration missions but also be meaningful for the research of morphologic evolution of asteroids.     

一种基于LIDAR的精确月球软着陆目标点选定方法

研究了月球探测器不设悬停阶段的精确软着陆运动中实时目标着陆点的自主选定方法．其过程包括着陆器运动补偿、数字高程图（DEM）的生成、障碍识别和最优安全着陆点搜索4个步骤．采用LIDAR敏感器,由经过运动补偿得到的斜距数据生成DEM,给出一种月面地形坡度和粗糙度的定义,根据安全着陆区的判据进行障碍识别,最后设计中心螺旋式搜索方法对探测器最优安全着陆点进行搜索选定．通过仿真验证了本文方法的有效性和优越性．     

基于多工况的新型着陆器软着陆性能优化

以新型腿式着陆器为研究对象,建立其刚柔耦合动力学分析模型,实现着陆器软着陆过程的仿真。通过仿真计算,确定着陆器最易翻倒、底面最易与星球表面岩石碰撞、主体承受最大碰撞力的3组恶劣着陆工况。分析着陆器缓冲机构构型选取设计变量,基于仿真得到的3组恶劣工况,应用第二代非劣排序遗传算法(NSGA-Ⅱ)实现着陆器软着陆性能的优化,优化目标为增强着陆器抗翻倒能力、降低着陆器底面与星球表面岩石碰撞的可能性、降低着陆器主体最大受力值。将优化所得参数代入模型重新进行仿真,着陆器不再发生翻倒,着陆平台底面与星球表面最小距离提高4.2%,主体最大受力值降低12.1%。     

小行星形貌特征的分析与描述

小行星形貌特征的分析对深空探测器的导航、着陆点的选取具有重要意义。现有的深空星体形貌特征的分析与描述主要集中在火星、月球等类地天体上,而作为宇宙中为数众多、信息量丰富的小行星却鲜有文献对其形貌特征作详细深入的介绍。文章以Vesta、Eros、Mimas等人类已探测的小行星为例,分析了几种典型的小行星表面形貌特征,完善了凹坑、岩石等形貌特征的描述参数,并用仿真实验生成了Mimas小行星表面的Herschel凹坑模型。实验结果显示,所提出的特征描述方法具有较好的仿真度和实用性。     

近地小行星采矿与防御计划发展现状

近地小行星交会、绕飞、着陆与采样返回技术经过数10年的发展日趋成熟。美国的OSIRIS-Rex对C类小行星进行特征分析与采样,日本宇宙航空研究开发机构的“隼鸟-2号”任务目的是小行星深层采样。美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和欧洲空间局（ESA）的小行星探测任务开始转向行星防御领域。NASA的ARM（Asteroid Redirect Mission）计划是开展小行星抓捕与轨道重定向,ESA联合NASA提出了小行星撞击与偏转评估计划,拟对双星系统开展撞击实验,为行星防御提供技术积累。此外,行星资源公司和深空工业公司分别规划了小行星商业采矿的蓝图,并已开展相关的在轨技术验证。对近地小行星的探测历程进行了回顾,重点介绍了OSIRIS-Rex、“隼鸟-2号”、NASA和ESA的行星防御计划及小行星采矿公司的商业采矿战略规划,总结了未来开展行星防御与采矿的关键技术。     

附着小天体的动态面鲁棒制导与控制方法

以精确附着小天体表面的任务为背景,提出一种基于扰动观测器(DOB)和动态面控制的附着小天体的制导与控制方法。根据探测器的初始条件与终端着陆条件规划了标称轨迹,并将引力场建模误差、参数摄动和外部干扰等视为总扰动,结合动态面控制和DOB设计了标称轨迹跟踪控制器。分析总扰动估计误差的渐进收敛性以及闭环标称轨迹跟踪控制系统的稳定性,并确定控制器参数选取条件。数值仿真结果表明,所设计的DOB可以有效地估计并抑制总扰动且闭环标称轨迹跟踪控制系统具有良好的稳定性和控制精度。     

双体小行星系统平衡态与稳定性研究

由于双体小行星独特的运动形式可为行星的演化提供重要线索,因而成为小行星探测中的热点目标。基于双椭球体模型研究了双小行星系统的相对运动、平衡态及稳定性。首先基于双椭球的全二体模型建立了双星系统相对运动的动力学方程;其次利用拉格朗日方程,通过求解系统角动量和能量,建立了双星系统平衡态对应的状态约束;最后给出了通过零速度状态曲面判断双星系统平衡态稳定性的一般性方法,在此基础上分析了小行星物理参数变化对系统平衡态稳定性的影响。研究可为未来双体小行星系统探测任务中的轨道设计与控制提供重要的理论参考。     

基于蒙特卡罗法的月球探测器着陆稳定性分析

为了验证月球探测器的软着陆性能,建立了月球探测器着陆过程多体动力学仿真分析模型.由于探测器着陆地点及初始着陆条件的不确定性,采用蒙特卡罗法对探测器的着陆稳定性进行了研究.为了提高蒙特卡罗模拟的效率,采用了基于均值估计相对误差的蒙特卡罗模拟终止准则,从而在保证精度的前提下减少计算成本.通过着陆仿真试验,获得了探测器在给定坡度的月面上着陆时,各着陆性能参数的分布均值、方差及相应的置信区间等统计学结果,并计算了探测器安全着陆的可靠度.     

基于响应面法的月球着陆器软着陆性能优化

为了提高月球着陆器软着陆性能,建立了月球着陆器的多体动力学参数化模型.对某典型恶劣工况进行了优化拉丁超立方实验设计,辨识关键实验因子.利用参数化模型和实验设计获取样本点构造了响应面模型,并检验了响应面的拟合精度.以多个动力学性能作为优化目标,用响应面计算结果构造目标函数和约束条件,对响应面参数做多目标优化.将优化所得参数代入动力学模型中进行仿真,优化效果明显,验证了基于响应面法的软着陆性能优化方法的可行性,为今后的仿真实验提供参考.      

A deorbiter CubeSat for active orbital debris removal

This paper introduces a mission concept for active removal of orbital debris based on the utilization of the CubeSat form factor. The CubeSat is deployed from a carrier spacecraft, known as a mothership, and is equipped with orbital and attitude control actuators to attach to the target debris, stabilize its attitude, and subsequently move the debris to a lower orbit where atmospheric drag is high enough for the bodies to burn up. The mass and orbit altitude of debris objects that are within the realms of the CubeSat’s propulsion capabilities are identified. The attitude control schemes for the detumbling and deorbiting phases of the mission are specified. The objective of the deorbiting maneuver is to decrease the semi-major axis of the debris orbit, at the fastest rate, from its initial value to a final value of about 6471?km (i.e., 100?km above Earth considering a circular orbit) via a continuous low-thrust orbital transfer. Two case studies are investigated to verify the performance of the deorbiter CubeSat during the detumbling and deorbiting phases of the mission. The baseline target debris used in the study are the decommissioned KOMPSAT-1 satellite and the Pegasus rocket body. The results show that the deorbiting times for the target debris are reduced significantly, from several decades to one or two years.     

基于刚柔耦合模型的月球着陆器动力学分析

基于刚柔耦合多体动力学理论,提出了一种基于三维实体造型、有限元分析与多体动力学分析的刚柔耦合动力学仿真分析方法;利用该方法建立了月球着陆器着陆动力学模型,分别在地球重力环境和月球重力环境(1/6地球重力环境)下,对某典型着陆工况下的着陆动力学进行了仿真分析,得到了着陆器着陆的缓冲性能分析结果,包括主支柱最大缓冲行程、左右辅助支柱最大缓冲行程、最大质心加速度响应;将仿真结果与试验结果相比较,验证了着陆器动力学模型的正确性以及仿真分析方法的有效性,为今后的着陆器缓冲试验提供了动力学模型和仿真分析方法.从能量角度对月球着陆器的着陆过程进行分析,弥补了缓冲试验难以进行能量分析的不足.