火星精确定点着陆多信息融合自主导航与控制方法研究

针对火星定点采样、载人登陆和基地构建等任务的需求,提出了一种火星精确定点着陆多信息融合自主导航与控制(Guidance Navigation and Control,GNC)方案。针对大气进入前的高精度导航需求,提出了基于X射线脉冲星和火星表面陆标图像的融合自主导航方法;针对火星着陆探测进入、下降和着陆(Entry,Descent and Landing,EDL)过程的高精度绝对和相对导航需求,提出了基于陆标图像、IMU(Inertial Measurement Unit)和测距测速信息的多信息融合自主导航方法;针对精确定点着陆要求,设计了大气进入和动力下降过程的制导与控制算法。数学仿真结果表明,提出的方案能够实现高精度的定点着陆(精度100 m)和相对避障(精度为0.5 m),可满足任务需求。     

Raindrops on Titan.

Some of the aspects of methane precipitation on Titan are considered. In particular, descent velocities are computed. It is found that raindrops fall much slower than on Earth. Additionally, the maximum size of raindrops on Titan is over 9 mm, compared with under 6 mm on Earth. The composition of drops will vary with altitude. Implications of these properties for Titan and the Huygens mission are considered.     

火星大气进入下降着陆段测控通信关键技术研究

着眼于我国首次火星探测任务着陆器EDL(Entry Descent and Landing)飞行段高风险特性,结合火星大气和地表环境分析了这一飞行阶段的主要特点和难点,系统地回顾了国外历次火星着陆任务的基本概况和任务失败的经验教训,并以美国"好奇号"着陆任务为例介绍了EDL期间可采用的主要通信手段,详细梳理了火星大气黑障段通信策略、调制体制选择以及高动态弱信号检测处理方案等测控通信需要解决的关键技术。最后对我国首次火星探测任务的关键技术攻关,任务准备和实施提出了建议。     

Shumann resonances and electromagnetic transparence in the atmosphere of Titan

Among the multiple questions that the CASSINI/HUYGENS mission tries to answer is the likelihood of electric discharges in Titan's atmosphere. The instruments “Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument” and “Radio and Plasma Wave Science” will probe the electromagnetic emissions during the Huygens descent and Cassini flybys, respectively. Although no lightning was observed during Voyager's encounters with Titan in 1980 and 1981, this does not exclude the existence of lightning phenomena. Recent investigations show that lightning discharges could occur in the lower atmosphere, such as the detection of methane condensation clouds in the troposphere and the theoretical prediction of an electric field that would be sufficient enough to cause lightning. We present a numerical model of Titan's atmosphere with the aim of calculating the resonance frequencies and the atmospheric transparency to electromagnetic waves. The detection and measurement of these resonances, Schumann frequencies, by the Huygens probe, would show the existence of electric activity connected with lightning discharges in the atmosphere. As it happens with the Schumann frequencies of Earth, losses associated with the electric conductivity will make these frequencies to be lower than the theoretically predicted, the fundamental one being located between 11 and 15 Hz. An analytical study shows that the strong losses associated with the high conductivity make it impossible that an electromagnetic wave generated near the surface with a frequency of 10 MHz or lower reaches the outer part of Titan's atmosphere. Therefore the detection of electromagnetic waves coming from Titan's lower atmosphere by the RPWS instrument is very unlikely.     

天问一号火星进入舱热控系统设计与验证

天问一号火星进入舱携带祝融号火星车实施进入、下降、着陆过程,其热控系统设计主要面临地火转移外热流大幅变化、进入火星舱壁气动烧蚀长时高温、着陆发动机点火局部超高温等技术挑战。为此,综合采用隔热设计、等温化设计、主动控温设计等热控手段,针对外热流大幅变化应用了新型SAL-2热控涂层,为解决局部超高温问题研制了新型气凝胶热防护装置,完整构建了进入舱的高效可靠热控系统。飞行遥测数据表明,全飞行过程设备温度和热控功耗均优于指标要求,进入、下降、着陆过程工作设备温度范围5.0~40.3℃,整舱平均控温功耗不超过43W,验证了进入舱热控系统设计的有效性。     

“天问一号”火星探测器关键任务系统设计

“天问一号”任务是我国行星探测的首次任务，在国际上首次通过一次任务实现了火星“环绕、着陆、巡视”的三步跨越.“天问一号”探测器由中国空间技术研究院负责抓总研制，包括环绕器和着陆巡视器两个组成部分.对“天问一号”探测器的任务特点和概貌进行了介绍，对包括飞行过程、远距离深空通信、火星捕获过程、火星进入下降及着陆过程、火星车解锁驶离和火面工作等关键环节的设计方案进行了描述，对“天问一号”所取得的技术成果与创新进行了总结.     

Beagle 2: a proposed exobiology lander for ESA's 2003 Mars Express mission.

The aim of the proposed Beagle 2 small lander for ESA's 2003 Mars Express mission is to search for organic material on and below the surface of Mars and to study the inorganic chemistry and mineralogy of the landing site. The lander will have a total mass of 60kg including entry, descent, and landing system. Experiments will be deployed on the surface using a robotic arm. It will use a mechanical mole and grinder to obtain samples from below the surface, under rocks, and inside rocks. Sample analysis by a mass spectrometer will include isotopic analysis. An optical microscope, an X-ray spectrometer and a Mossbauer spectrometer will conduct in-situ rock studies.     

Network science landers for Mars

The NetLander Mission will deploy four landers to the Martian surface. Each lander includes a network science payload with instrumentation for studying the interior of Mars, the atmosphere and the subsurface, as well as the ionospheric structure and geodesy. The NetLander Mission is the first planetary mission focusing on investigations of the interior of the planet and the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere. A broad consortium of national space agencies and research laboratories will implement the mission. It is managed by CNES (the French Space Agency), with other major players being FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute), DLR (the German Space Agency), and other research institutes. According to current plans, the NetLander Mission will be launched in 2005 by means of an Ariane V launch, together with the Mars Sample Return mission. The landers will be separated from the spacecraft and targeted to their locations on the Martian surface several days prior to the spacecraft's arrival at Mars. The landing system employs parachutes and airbags. During the baseline mission of one Martian year, the network payloads will conduct simultaneous seismological, atmospheric, magnetic, ionospheric, geodetic measurements and ground penetrating radar mapping supported by panoramic images. The payloads also include entry phase measurements of the atmospheric vertical structure. The scientific data could be combined with simultaneous observations of the atmosphere and surface of Mars by the Mars Express Orbiter that is expected to be functional during the NetLander Mission's operational phase. Communication between the landers and the Earth would take place via a data relay onboard the Mars Express Orbiter.     

Multi-objective optimization of parachute triggering algorithm for Mars exploration

A multi-objective optimization procedure to design parachute triggering algorithm, based on Monte Carlo analysis of flight uncertainties, has been developed in this paper. Most of Mars explorations missions utilize parachute for a safe descent through the lowest of the atmosphere. The parachute triggering algorithm is designed to accommodate the range of off-nominal entry trajectories, and is aimed to parachute opening in certain range of Mach numbers, dynamic pressure and altitude. Our novel algorithm takes the fight uncertainty into the account through Monte Carlo analysis, selects maximization of altitude statistical mean and minimization of Mach number statistical mean as two objectives, then employs multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition (MOEA/D), to search the Pareto-front framework. Such a methodology can be implemented on the future design of entry, descent, and landing (EDL) mission.     

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.     

New insights into Titan's organic chemistry in the gas and aerosol phases.

Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, with a dense atmosphere very rich in organics, and many couplings in the various parts of its "geofluid", is a reference for studying prebiotic chemistry on a planetary scale. New data have been obtained from experiments simulating this organic chemistry (gas and aerosol phases), within the right ranges of temperature and a careful avoiding of any chemical contamination. They show a very good agreement with the observational data, demonstrating for the first time the formation of all the organic species already detected in Titan atmosphere including, at last, C4N2, together with many other species not yet detected in Titan. This strongly suggests the presence of more complex organics in Titan's atmosphere and surface, including high molecular weight polyynes and cyanopolyynes. The NASA-ESA Cassini-Huygens mission has been successfully launched in October 1997. The Cassini spacecraft will reach the Saturn system in 2004 and become an orbiter around Saturn, while the Huygens probe will penetrate into Titan's atmosphere. In situ measurements, in particular from Huygens GC-MS and ACP instruments, will provide a detailed analysis of the organics present in the air, aerosols, and surface. This very ambitious mission should yield much information of crucial importance for our knowledge of the complexity of Titan's chemistry, and, more generally for the field of exobiology.     

A facility for simulating Titan’s environment

As a result of measurements acquired by the Cassini–Huygens mission of Titan’s near surface atmospheric composition and temperature, Titan conditions can now be simulated in the laboratory and samples can subsequently be subjected to those conditions. Titan demonstrates an active hydrological-like cycle with its thick atmosphere, dynamic clouds, polar lakes of methane and ethane, moist regolith, and extensive fluvial erosive features. Unlike Earth, Titan’s hydrological-like cycle likely involves several constituents, primarily methane and ethane. Here the properties of a new Titan simulation facility are presented, including conceptual methodology, design, implementation, and performance results. The chamber maintains Titan’s surface temperature and pressure, and the sample cryogenic liquids undergoing experimentation are condensed within the chamber itself. During the experiments, the evaporation rates of the sample liquids are directly determined by continually measuring mass. Constituents are analyzed utilizing a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), and vapor concentrations are determined using a gas chromatograph fitted with a Flame Ionization Detector (FID). All pertinent data is logged via computer. Under laboratory conditions, the direct measurements of the evaporation rates of methane, ethane, and mixtures thereof can be achieved. Among the processes to be studied are the effects of regolith on transport from the subsurface to the atmosphere, the freezing point depression effects of dissolved nitrogen, and the solubility of various relevant organic compounds.     

Titan’s new pole: Implications for the Huygens entry and descent trajectory and landing coordinates

The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe separated from the NASA Cassini spacecraft on 25 December 2004, after having been attached for a 7-year interplanetary journey and three orbits around Saturn. The probe reached the predefined NASA/ESA interface point on 14 January 2005 at 09:05:52.523 (UTC). It performed a successful entry and descent sequence and softly landed on Titan’s surface on the same day at 11:38:10.77 (UTC) with a speed of about 4.54 m/s. Since the publication of the official project entry and descent trajectory reconstruction effort by the Descent Trajectory Working Group in 2007 (referred to as DTWG#4) various other efforts have been performed and published. This paper presents an overview of the most relevant reconstructions and compares their methodologies and results. Furthermore, the results of a new reconstruction effort (DTWG#5) are presented, which is based on the same methodology as DTWG#4 but takes into account new estimates of Titan’s pole coordinates which were derived from radar images of different Cassini Titan flybys. It can be shown that the primary effect can be observed in the meridional direction which is represented by a stark southward shift of the trajectory by about 0.3 deg. A much smaller effect is seen in the zonal direction (i.e., less than 0.01 deg in the west to east direction). The revised probe landing coordinates are 192.335 deg W and 10.573 deg S. A comparison of these coordinates with results of recent landing site investigations using visual and radar images of the Cassini VIMS instrument shows excellent agreement of the two independently derived landing coordinates, i.e., longitude and latitude residuals of respectively 0.035 deg and 0.007 deg.     

容错待命储备系统的任务可靠性计算

讨论了待命储备系统具有容错性能时的任务可靠性计算, 由于故障检测器、切换器和待命器件是否可靠,直接影响该容错系统的可靠性.为了正确评估系统的任务可靠性,这里考虑了检测器和切换器存在一定的误警率和误切换率. 据我们所知,Markov模型是处理这个问题的主要工具,而国内很少有这方面的讨论.本文用Markov理论来确定系统的状态及其状态转移矩阵, 从而容错可靠性的计算问题得到解决,此外还讨论了有关误差概率的计算模型.     

DORIS system: The new age

The boarding of the first DGXX DORIS instrument on Jason-2 mission gives us the opportunity to present the improvements that have been implemented on the DORIS system. The goal of this paper is to present information about the new capacities of the DORIS system and to give the current status of its components. An overview of the DORIS system, the International DORIS Service and the Jason-2 satellite mission are first presented. Then the new characteristics of the on-board instrument are detailed. The capacity to track up to seven ground beacons simultaneously dramatically increases the number of measurements performed: a factor of three increase over Jason-1 is observed at the altitude of 1330 km. It also increases the diversity of directions of observation and allows low elevation measurements from 0°. The new phase measurements capability allows now phase processing. The instability of the Jason-1 USOs (Ultra-Stable Oven-controlled quartz oscillator) while crossing the South Atlantic Anomaly has been solved by decreasing the sensitivity to radiation by a factor of 10. New features of the on-board software enhance the coastal and inland water altimetry and increase the robustness of the data. The new software also improves the real time orbit accuracy for operational altimetry. The improvements introduced concurrently on the ground segment have also significantly enhanced capability. The new RINEX exchange formats provide simultaneous phase and pseudo-range measurements. The maintenance of the DORIS Beacons Network and the work done by the DORIS Signal Integrity monitoring team lead to an increased availability of the Network from 75% to 90% and so to a more homogenous orbit coverage.     

Shock protection of penetrator-based instrumentation via a sublimation approach

It is often necessary for space-borne instrumentation to cope with substantial levels of shock acceleration both in the initial launch phase, as well as during entry, descent and landing in the case of planetary exploration. Current plans for a new generation of penetrator-based space missions will subject the associated on-board instrumentation to far greater levels of shock, and ways must therefore be found to either ruggedize or else protect any sensitive components during the impact phase. In this paper, we present an innovative method of shock protection that is suited for use in a number of planetary environments, based upon the temporary encapsulation of said components within a waxy solid which may then be sublimated to return the instrument back to its normal operation. We have tested this method experimentally using micromachined silicon suspensions under applied shock loads of up to 15,000g, and found that these were able to survive without incurring damage. Furthermore, quality factor measurements undertaken on these suspensions indicate that their mechanical performance remains unaffected by the encapsulation and subsequent sublimation process.     

Mars entry fault-tolerant control via neural network and structure adaptive model inversion

The capability of autonomous fault detection and reconstruction is essential for future manned Mars exploration missions. Considering actuator failures and atmosphere uncertainties, we present a new active fault-tolerant control algorithm for Mars entry by use of neural network and structure adaptive model inversion. First, the online BP neural network is adopted to conduct the fault detection and isolation. Second, based on the structure adaptive model inversion, an adaptive neural network PID controller is developed for Mars entry fault-tolerant control. The normal PID controller will be automatically switched into neural network PID controller when an actuator fault is detected. Therefore, the error between the reference model and the output of the attitude control system would be adjusted to ensure the dynamic property of the entry vehicle. Finally, the effectiveness of the algorithm developed in this paper is confirmed by computer simulation.     

天问一号火星软着陆制导、导航与控制系统

天问一号火星探测器成功实现了我国首次火星表面软着陆，进入舱制导导航与控制系统(GNC系统)负责在火星进入下降着陆过程实施进入舱的姿态与轨道控制，确保进入舱安全着陆火星表面.介绍了执行天问一号火星EDL任务的GNC系统飞行阶段划分、系统组成、方案架构，以及针对火星EDL任务的特色设计，最后介绍了GNC系统在轨飞行结果.     

Radio/FADS/IMU integrated navigation for Mars entry

Supposing future orbiting and landing collaborative exploration mission as the potential project background, this paper addresses the issue of Mars entry integrated navigation using radio beacon, flush air data sensing system (FADS), and inertial measurement unit (IMU). The range and Doppler information sensed from an orbiting radio beacon, the dynamic pressure and heating data sensed from flush air data sensing system, and acceleration and attitude angular rate outputs from an inertial measurement unit are integrated in an unscented Kalman filter to perform state estimation and suppress the system and measurement noise. Computer simulations show that the proposed integrated navigation scheme can enhance the navigation accuracy, which enables precise entry guidance for the given Mars orbiting and landing collaborative exploration mission.     

一体化电液作动器容错结构设计

一体化电液作动器(EHA, Electrical Hydrostatic Actuator)是功率电传(PBW, Power by Wire)飞控操纵系统的一部分,为了保证整个飞控系统的可靠度,必须采用多余度结构配置.飞控系统分别从可靠度、任务成功率、余度和故障管理水平以及性能、重量等角度提出了EHA的设计指标要求,并按照设计指标要求,对EHA各个组成部分的失效率进行了计算.根据计算结果,针对一种可行的EHA容错结构,分别计算了由于EHA故障导致的任务中断率(PMA, Probability of Mission abort)和失控率(PLOC, Probability of Loss of Control).计算结果表明此种结构形式能够满足飞控系统对作动器可靠度的要求.最后根据选用的可靠度模型,设计出具有容错能力的多余度作动系统,并对此容错结构进行了详细阐述.