基于地球敏感器和加速度计的月球车自主定向算法研究

月球车定向是月球车导航的一个重要组成部分，它是月球车定位的基础和前提。针对这一问题，提出了一种适用于月球车长时间、长距离导航的绝对定向算法。该算法利用非线性最小二乘平差原理对CCD地球敏感器成像进行处理，实现了在月球表面CCD地球敏感器的矢量观测功能。结合加速度计的测角原理，实现了航向角确定。以理论分析和实际推算描述了该定向方法的具体实现过程，最后以仿真结果验证了该方案的可行性，为未来我国月球探测中月球车的实际应用提供了技术参考。     

基于SQP方法的常推力月球软着陆轨道优化方法

月球软着陆是未来月球探测中的一项关键技术。针对这项技术，本文给出了一种基于SQP方法的常推力月球软着陆轨道优化方法。该方法通过将常推力月球软着陆轨道离散化，利用离散点处状态连续作为约束条件，把常推力月球软着陆轨道优化问题归结为一个非线性规划问题，对于此问题的求解，其初值均为有物理意义的状态和控制量，从而避免了采用传统优化方法在解决此优化问题时对没有物理意义变量初值的猜测。最后，利用SQP方法求解了此轨道优化问题。仿真计算结果表明这种离散化的方法应用于此轨道优化问题可以避免传统轨道优化方法对初值敏感的问题。     

月球车控制方案初探

通过对月球车资料的调研,介绍了月球车的导航系统以及实现方案,并针对安放摄像机的平衡系统提出使用无平台平衡系统的设想,对原有的平台平衡系统进行改进.     

Strategies of developing advanced lunar power systems

Electric and thermal power have to be available at the base site on the lunar surface before the first lunar crew arrives. Unlimited solar energy is available during the lunar day, but this must be stored for use during the lunar night unless nuclear energy systems are available. State-of-the-art candidate systems are reviewed and the production of solar cells on the moon is discussed. Various options for developing a lunar power plant are proposed. These must be simulated and optimized in a real lifecycle systems scenario to provide operations and cost data essential for choosing a strategy.     

Studying the evolution of the hot universe with the X-ray evolving universe spectroscopy mission – XEUS

Europe is one of the major partners building the International Space Station (ISS) and European industry, together with ESA, is responsible for many station components including the Columbus Orbital Facility, the Automated Transport Vehicle, two connecting modules and the European Robotic Arm. Together with this impressive list of contributions there is a strong desire within the ESA Member States to benefit from this investment by utilizing the unique capabilities of the ISS to perform world-class science. XEUS is one of the astronomical applications being studied by ESA to utilize the capabilities of the ISS. XEUS will be a long-term X-ray observatory with an initial mirror area of 6 m² at 1 keV that will be expanded to 30 m² following a visit to the ISS. The 1 keV spatial resolution is expected to be 2–5″ half-energy-width. XEUS will consist of separate detector and mirror spacecraft (MSC) aligned by active control to provide a focal length of 50 m. A new detector spacecraft, complete with the next generation of instruments, will also be added after visiting the ISS. The limiting 0.1–2.5 keV sensitivity will then be 4 × 10⁻¹⁸ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹, around 200 times better than XMM-Newton, allowing XEUS to study the properties of the hot baryons and dark matter at high redshift.     

Gas permeability and flow characterization of simulated lunar regolith

Recent discoveries of water ice trapped within lunar topsoil (regolith) have placed a new emphasis on the recovery and utilization of water for future space exploration. Upon heating the lunar ice to sublimation, the resulting water vapor could theoretically transmit through the lunar regolith, to be captured on the surface. As the permeability of lunar regolith is essential to this process, this paper seeks to experimentally determine the permeability and flow characteristics of various gas species through simulated lunar regolith (SLR). Two different types of SLR were compacted and placed into the permeability setup to measure the flow-rate of transmitted gas through the sample. Darcy’s permeability constant was calculated for each sample and gas combination, and flow characteristics were determined from the results. The results show that Darcy’s permeability constant varies with SLR compaction density, and identified no major difference in permeable flow between the several tested gas species. Between the two tested SLR types, JSC-1A was shown to be more permeable than NU-LHT under similar conditions. In addition, a transition zone was identified in the flow when the gas pressure differential across the sample was less than ∼40 kPa.     

Production of high fidelity lunar agglutinate simulant

As space faring nations consider manned and unmanned missions to the Moon, there is a growing need to develop high fidelity lunar regolith simulants that can accurately reproduce the properties and behavior of lunar regolith. Such simulants will be employed to verify the performance of equipment, mechanisms, structures and processes to be used on the lunar surface. One of the significant limitations of current terrestrial-based simulants, such as the popular mare simulant, JSC-1A, is the lack of agglutinates. This paper investigates the production of a lunar mare agglutinate simulant based on JSC-1A. A modified plasma processing technique was used to expose the JSC-1A regolith simulant to high temperatures and transform it to predominantly a glassy phase. Detailed characterization results are presented to confirm that the agglutinate simulant material produced during this investigation reasonably satisfies the primary requirements of an agglutinate simulant such as amorphous/crystalline content, particle size, morphology, vesicular structure, chemistry, and presence of nanophase elemental Fe.     

Study on passive momentum exchange landing gear using two-dimensional analysis

This paper discusses a landing response control system based on the momentum exchange principle for planetary exploration spacecraft. In the past, landing gear systems with cantilever designs that incorporate honeycomb materials to dissipate shock energy through plastic deformation have been used, but once tested before launch, the system cannot be used in a real mission. The sky crane system used for the Mars Science Laboratory by NASA can achieve a safe and precise landing, but it is highly complex. This paper introduces a momentum exchange impact damper (MEID) that absorbs the controlled object׳s momentum with extra masses called damper masses. The MEID is reusable, which makes it easy to ensure the landing gear׳s reliability. In this system, only passive elements such as springs are needed. A single-axis (SA) model has already been used to verify the effectiveness of MEIDs through simulations and experiments measuring the rebound height of the spacecraft. However, the SA model cannot address the rotational motion and tipping of the spacecraft. This paper presents a two-landing-gear-system (TLGS) model in which multiple MEIDs are equipped for two-dimensional analysis. Unlike in the authors׳ previous studies, in this study each MEID is launched when the corresponding landing gear lands and the MEIDs do not contain active actuators. This mechanism can be used to realize advanced control specifications, and it is simply compared with previous mechanisms including actuators, in which all of the MEIDs are launched simultaneously. If each MEID works when the corresponding gear lands, the rebound height of each gear can be minimized, and tipping can be prevented, as demonstrated by the results of our simulations.     

月球穿透器与月震仪组网探测研究

提出了一种利用月球穿透器实现多点月震仪的布设,对着陆点选取、分离与下降过程、载荷配置及穿透器系统等进行了分析与设计。穿透器与环绕器分离后完成制动,下降并侵彻月球浅表,开展科学探测,并实现大尺度的月震仪布设。研究可为我国未来月球地震仪组网和月球基地建立提供参考。     

基于三维地形匹配的月球软着陆导航方法研究

针对月球探测器定点着陆任务的需要,研究了基于三维地形匹配的导航方法。对三维地形匹配问题,将高程方差图局部极值点作为三维地形特征,在构建地形特征之间的相对位置与角度不变量的基础上,提出了基于投票的三维地形匹配策略。针对测量噪声统计特性的不确定性,将Sage\|Husa噪声估计算子与迭代卡尔曼滤波相结合,通过对测量噪声进行在线估计有效避免滤波精度下降甚至滤波发散的出现。数字仿真结果表明所研究的导航方法能够有效地实现探测器相对位置和姿态的精确估计。