A lunar L2-Farside exploration and science mission concept with the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and a teleoperated lander/rover

A novel concept is presented in this paper for a human mission to the lunar L2 (Lagrange) point that would be a proving ground for future exploration missions to deep space while also overseeing scientifically important investigations. In an L2 halo orbit above the lunar farside, the astronauts aboard the Orion Crew Vehicle would travel 15% farther from Earth than did the Apollo astronauts and spend almost three times longer in deep space. Such a mission would serve as a first step beyond low Earth orbit and prove out operational spaceflight capabilities such as life support, communication, high speed re-entry, and radiation protection prior to more difficult human exploration missions. On this proposed mission, the crew would teleoperate landers/rovers on the unexplored lunar farside, which would obtain samples from the geologically interesting farside and deploy a low radio frequency telescope. Sampling the South Pole-Aitken basin, one of the oldest impact basins in the solar system, is a key science objective of the 2011 Planetary Science Decadal Survey. Observations at low radio frequencies to track the effects of the Universe’s first stars/galaxies on the intergalactic medium are a priority of the 2010 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey. Such telerobotic oversight would also demonstrate capability for human and robotic cooperation on future, more complex deep space missions such as exploring Mars.     

Identification and characterization of science-rich landing sites for lunar lander missions using integrated remote sensing observations

Despite more than 52 years of lunar exploration, a wide range of first-order scientific questions remain about the Moon’s formation, temporal evolution, and current surface and interior properties. Addressing many of these questions requires obtaining new in situ analyses or return of lunar surface or shallow subsurface samples, and hence rely on the selection of optimal landing sites. Here, we present an approach to optimize science-rich lunar landing site selection studies based on the integration of remote sensing observations. Currently available remote sensing data, as well as features of interest published in the recent literature, were integrated in a Geographic Information System. This numerical database contains geographic information about all these findings, which can be consulted and used to simultaneously display multiple features and parameters of interest. To illustrate our approach, we identified the optimal landing sites to address the two top priorities (or goals) relative to Concept 3 of the National Research Council of the National Academies (2007), namely to ‘Determine the extent and composition of the primary feldspathic crust, (ur)KREEP layer, and other products of differentiation’ and to ‘Inventory the variety, age, distribution and origin of lunar rock types’. We review site requirements and propose possible landing sites for both these goals. We identified 29 sites that best fulfill both these goals and compare them with the landing sites of planned future lunar lander missions. Finally, we detail two of these science-rich sites (Aristarchus and Theophilus craters) which are particularly accessible through their location on the nearside.     

Deep reinforcement learning for six degree-of-freedom planetary landing

This work develops a deep reinforcement learning based approach for Six Degree-of-Freedom (DOF) planetary powered descent and landing. Future Mars missions will require advanced guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for the powered descent phase to target specific surface locations and achieve pinpoint accuracy (landing error ellipse <5 m radius). This requires both a navigation system capable of estimating the lander’s state in real-time and a guidance and control system that can map the estimated lander state to a commanded thrust for each lander engine. In this paper, we present a novel integrated guidance and control algorithm designed by applying the principles of reinforcement learning theory. The latter is used to learn a policy mapping the lander’s estimated state directly to a commanded thrust for each engine, resulting in accurate and almost fuel-optimal trajectories over a realistic deployment ellipse. Specifically, we use proximal policy optimization, a policy gradient method, to learn the policy. Another contribution of this paper is the use of different discount rates for terminal and shaping rewards, which significantly enhances optimization performance. We present simulation results demonstrating the guidance and control system’s performance in a 6-DOF simulation environment and demonstrate robustness to noise and system parameter uncertainty.     

Radio beacons/IMU integrated navigation for Mars entry

High precision entry navigation capability is essential for future Mars pinpoint landing missions, together with the entry guidance and aerodynamic lift control. This paper addresses the issue of Mars entry navigation using inertial measurement unit (IMU) and orbiting or surface radiometric beacons. The range and Doppler information sensed from orbiting or surface radio beacons and the entry vehicle state information derived from IMU are integrated in Unscented Kalman filter to correct the inertial constant bias and suppress the navigation measurement noise. Computer simulations show that the integrated navigation algorithm proposed in this paper can achieve 50 m position error and 2 m/s velocity error, which satisfies the need of future pinpoint Mars landing missions.     

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。     

月球软着陆动力下降制导控制技术综述与展望

未来的月球着陆任务将着力于开发月球资源、建立月球基地,这些都离不开月球软着陆技术的支持;而要实现探测器在预选点安全精确地着陆,就离不开动力下降制导控制技术的支持。本文系统地总结了两种成功的月球软着陆及其制导方式,对已有的制导控制方案及其研究进展进行了详细的阐述和对比分析。以未来的月球采样返回和月球基地任务为潜在工程目标,对下一代的月球软着陆动力下降的制导控制及其所涉及的关键科学技术问题进行了比较全面的分析和展望。     

Active disturbance rejection control for drag tracking in mars entry guidance

Future Mars missions will require precision landing capability, which motivates the need for entry closed-loop guidance schemes. A new tracking law – active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) – is presented in this paper. The ability of the ADRC tracking law to handle the atmospheric models and the vehicle’s aerodynamic errors is investigated. Monte Carlo simulations with dispersions in entry state variables, drag and lift coefficients, and atmospheric density show effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Low Earth orbit constellation design using a multi-objective genetic algorithm for GNSS reflectometry missions

Spaceborne global navigation satellite system reflectometry (GNSS-R) is an innovative bistatic radar remote sensing technique utilizing low Earth orbit (LEO) based GNSS-R instruments to acquire GNSS L-band opportunistic signals for measuring geophysical parameters. A GNSS-R LEO constellation with an optimization design for its specialized missions is very significant and necessary. However, the constellation design involves multi-parameter and multi-objective optimization, and the classical analytic solution is not capable of such a complicated issue. This study proposes a multi-objective LEO constellation design method with a genetic algorithm (GA) and presents a framework for designing two GNSS-R LEO constellations, termed “lower-latitude constellation” for typhoons and hurricanes observation in the tropics and “global constellation” for global geophysical parameter measurements. Then, the observation capability of both designed constellations is evaluated in terms of the number of reflection points, spatial coverage density, and revisit time to verify the GA efficiency in LEO constellation design. Results show that the two designed LEO constellations with high fitness function values possess optimal orbit parameter set configuration and outperform the existing CyGNSS constellations in observation performance. Compared with CyGNSS, the number of reflection points observed by the lower-latitude constellation and the global constellation increases by 38% and 45%, as well as the spatial coverage density increases by 28% and 36%. The revisit time for the lower-latitude constellation is reduced by 0.29 h, whereas the revisit time for the global constellation increases by one hour.     

Science strategy for human exploration of Mars.

The scientific objectives of Mars exploration can be framed within the overarching theme of exploring Mars as another home for life, both for evidence of past or present life on Mars, and as a potential future home for human life. The two major areas of research within this theme are: 1) determining the relationship between planetary evolution, climate change, and life, and 2) determining the habitability of Mars. Within this framework, this paper discusses the exploration objectives for exobiology, climatology and atmospheric science, geology, and martian resource assessment. Human exploration will proceed in four major phases: 1) Precursor missions which will obtain environmental knowledge necessary for human exploration, 2) Emplacement phase which includes the first few human landings where crews will explore the local area of the landing site; 3) Consolidation phase missions where a permanent base will be constructed and crews will be capable of detailed exploration over regional scales; 4) Utilization phase, in which a continuously occupied permanent Mars base exists and humans will be capable of detailed global exploration of the martian surface. The phases of exploration differ primarily in the range and capabilities of human mobility. In the emplacement phase, an unpressurized rover, similar to the Apollo lunar rover, will be used and will have a range of a few tens of kilometers. In the Consolidation phase, mobility will be via a pressurized all-terrain vehicle capable of expeditions from the base site of several weeks duration. In the Utilization phase, humans will be capable of several months long expeditions to any point on the surface of Mars using a suborbital rocket equipped with habitat, lab, and return vehicle. Because of human mobility limitations, it is important to extend the range and duration of exploration in all phases by using teleoperated rover vehicles. Site selection for human missions to Mars must consider the multi-decade time frame of these four phases. We suggest that operations in the first two phases be focused in the regional area containing the Coprates Quadrangle and adjacent areas.     

Evaluation of a Geiger-mode imaging flash lidar in the approach phase for autonomous safe landing on the Moon

The imaging flash lidar has been considered as a promising sensor for the future space missions such as autonomous safe landing, spacecraft rendezvous and docking due to its ability to provide a full 3D scene with a single or multiple laser pulses. The linear-mode flash lidar has been developed and demonstrated for an autonomous safe landing on the Moon in order to provide an accurate distance measurement to the landing site and its 3D image. Yet, the Geiger-mode flash lidar has also been recognized as an emerging technology for the space missions because it is highly sensitive even to a single photon and provides the very accurate timing of photon arrival. In this study, the performance of the Geiger-mode flash lidar is simulated in the approach phase and evaluated for the autonomous landing on the Moon. Furthermore, a new statistical signal processing algorithm is proposed to remove the noise counts in order to obtain the 3D image from a sequence of laser pulses in the situation of the fast moving spacecraft. The algorithm is shown to be effective for the autonomous landing due to its ability to remove noise events under the condition of low signal-to-noise ratio and improve ranging accuracy.     

基于嵌入式FPGA加速ORB算法的遥感影像配准方法

卫星上计算资源有限，星载嵌入式处理器处理遥感影像的配准时通常需要很长的时间。可编程逻辑门阵列（FPGA）利用其内部可编程器件可用于加速图像处理。提出了一种基于Xilinx公司的ZYNQ芯片加速ORB算法的遥感影像配准方法，可用于3000×3000像素尺寸的卫星图像配准，缩短了计算耗时，提升了ORB算法的计算能效比。利用FPGA能够实现真正的并行计算电路，实现ORB算法多支路单层流水线的并行计算结构。采用软硬件结合的方法实现架构，能够处理不同分辨率的图像，可灵活配置特征点的数量。基于设计的加速ORB配准方法，获得了较高准确率。与软件实现相比,OVS-1A遥感影像偏移精度损失低于0.05个像元;GF.4遥感影像偏移精度损失小于0.9个像元。将ORB配准算法流程应用在ZYNQ7020上，耗时减少了57.50%。     

CAS-1 lunar soil simulant

Lunar soil simulant is a geochemical reproduction of lunar regolith, and is needed for lunar science and engineering researches. This paper describes a new lunar soil simulant, CAS-1, prepared by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to support lunar orbiter, soft-landing mission and sample return missions of China’s Lunar Exploration Program, which is scheduled for 2004–2020. Such simulants should match the samples returned from the Moon, all collected from the lunar regolith rather than outcrops. The average mineral and chemical composition of lunar soil sample returned from the Apollo 14 mission, which landed on the Fra Mauro Formation, is chosen as the model for the CAS-1 simulant. Source material for this simulant was a low-Ti basaltic scoria dated at 1600 years from the late Quaternary volcanic area in the Changbai Mountains of northeast China. The main minerals of this rock are pyroxene, olivine, and minor plagioclase, and about 20–40% modal glass. The scoria was analyzed by XRF and found to be chemically similar to Apollo 14 lunar sample 14163. It was crushed in an impact mill with a resulting median particle size 85.9 μm, similar to Apollo soils. Bulk density, shear resistance, complex permittivity, and reflectance spectra were also similar to Apollo 14 soil. We conclude that CAS-1 is an ideal lunar soil simulant for science and engineering research of future lunar exploration program.     

高光谱遥感成像技术的发展与展望

地表形态和目标特性是空间对地遥感的两个重要问题.经过近40年的发展，高光谱遥感技术已取得了巨大的进展，从数据获取、处理到应用都积累了大量成果.作为涉及多学科交叉的年轻学科，高光谱遥感技术的发展经历了一个以需求为导向，在发展中又不断探索完善需求的历程.高光谱成像仪作为获取目标图谱数据的重要仪器，其发展对于整个高光谱遥感的发展至关重要.本文分析了国内外不同类型高光谱成像仪的成像体制及应用案例，得出了近40年来高光谱成像仪发展历程所展现出的技术特点，结合当前发展现状，对未来高光谱成像仪的发展趋势，尤其是核心指标的提升和技术体制拓展进行了综合展望，以期为该领域的后续研究提供一些思路，同时为相关领域的科技规划提供参考.      

MCAV/IMU integrated navigation for the powered descent phase of Mars EDL

Pin-point landing is considered as a key technology for future manned Mars landing and Mars base missions. The traditional inertial navigation system (INS) based guidance, navigation and control (GNC) mode used in the Mars entry, descent and landing (EDL) phase has no ability to achieve the precise and safe Mars landing, so novel EDL GNC methodologies should be investigated to meet this goal. This paper proposes the MCAV/IMU integrated navigation scheme for the powered descent phase of Mars EDL. The Miniature Coherent Altimeter and Velocimeter (MCAV) is adopted to correct the inertial bias and drift and improve the performance of integrated navigation. Altitude and velocity information derived from MCAV and the lander’s state information sensed by inertial measurement unit (IMU) are integrated in extended Kalman filter algorithm. The validity of the proposed navigation scheme is confirmed by computer simulation.     

火星尘埃与探测

火星表面尘埃与太阳辐射、热辐射的相互作用直接影响火星大气的结构、热平衡和动力学过程,并会产生改变火星表面反照率和火星地貌的长期效应.火星尘埃环境还对登陆于火星表面的着陆器能源系统和光学载荷等系统构成影响.为此需开展火星大气尘埃的直接就位探测.在介绍了火星的尘埃特性与主要探测方法基础上,提出了采用微质量计技术开展火星表面尘埃就位探测的综合探测器方案.探测器包含3种传感器.尘埃累积传感器通过设置其敏感晶体表面朝上,可以探测火星表面尘埃的沉积质量与速率;荷电尘埃传感器通过加置不同极性的偏置电压,可以探测荷正电尘埃和荷负电尘埃的累积特性;磁尘传感器通过在敏感晶体后加设小型永久磁铁,可以探测磁性尘埃的累积特性.传感器感测质量范围为10^-11~10^-4g.火星尘埃综合探测器可应用于未来的火星着陆探测计划.     

Comprehensive comparison of VHR 3D spatial data acquired from IKONOS and TerraSAR-X imagery

With the launch of very high resolution (VHR) optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing satellites such as IKONOS and TerraSAR-X, a new era has begun in 3D spatial data acquirement. IKONOS provided the first VHR data is still being preferred for many remote sensing applications. TerraSAR-X is considered as a revolution in SAR imaging as a result of 1 m resolution imaging capability. The imaging principles of these satellites are quite different and include advantages and disadvantages that have considerable effects on the quality of acquired 3D spatial data.     

星载高速串行数据处理系统设计与实现

遥感卫星图像数据量的高速增长,以及遥感卫星搭载的相机不同工作模式下产生的数据差异化处理的需求,为星间数据处理带来了巨大挑战。针对星载Gbit·s^–1级高速数据收发及文件缓存等星间数据处理面临的问题,以百兆每秒级星载高速接收缓存系统为切入点,以遥感卫星数据处理的发展为依据,在分析SerDes传输原理的基础上,采用模型仿真和工程验证的方法,制定了高速串行数据链路层传输协议SSLLP(Satellite Serial Link Layer Protocol)和类文件化高速缓存的策略。在硬件设计和软件开发的基础上,最终完成了具备处理入口速率3.2 Gbit·s^–1并能以类文件化的方式缓存64个数据文件的星载数据处理单元的工程实现。测试结果表明,基于SSLLP的高速串行数据接收正确,缓存策略有效,系统高效可靠。该设计已在某型号任务中取得在轨验证,为星载高速串行数据处理系统提供了参考。     

Interstellar planetary protection

In the coming decades the detection of Earth-like extrasolar planets, either apparently lifeless or exhibiting spectral signatures of life, will encourage design studies for craft to visit them. These missions will require the elaboration of an interstellar planetary protection protocol. Given a specific dose required to sterilize microorganisms on a spacecraft, a critical mean velocity can be determined below which a craft becomes self-sterilizing. This velocity is calculated to be below velocities previously projected for interstellar missions, suggesting that an active sterilization protocol prior to launch might be required. Given uncertainties in the surface conditions of a destination extrasolar planet, particularly at microscopic scales, the potential for unknown biochemistries and biologies elsewhere, or the possible inoculation of a lifeless planet that is habitable, then both lander and orbiter interstellar missions should be completely free of all viable organisms, necessitating a planetary protection approach applied to orbiters and landers bound for star systems with unknown local conditions for habitability. I discuss the case of existing craft on interstellar trajectories – Pioneer 10, 11 and Voyager 1 and 2.     

地外天体着陆点选择综述与展望

行星表面具有科学研究价值的区域往往地形复杂,对着陆的安全性提出了很高的要求。如何选择既满足工程约束又具有很好科学价值的着陆点,在提高任务可靠性的同时获得最优的科学回报,成为未来行星着陆任务需要解决的首要问题之一。回顾了以往地外天体着陆任务的着陆点分布情况,总结归纳了着陆点选取过程中需要考虑的因素,分析了当前的研究现状并给出一般选取流程,最后针对我国未来深空探测任务着陆点选择问题提出了一些思考与建议。