低速溅射小行星表面采样的动力学仿真

开发了适用于小行星环境的大规模三维离散元程序DEMBody,针对低速射弹溅射表层风化层的小行星采样方案,仿真了相同质量不同形状的射弹在微重力环境下垂直射入颗粒床的过程,研究了溅射物质在采样器中的运动历程及最终收集质量与射弹形状的关系。结果表明,90°锥形射弹的采样效率最高。

Numerical Simulation of Asteroid Surface Impact Sampling

Asteroid exploration will be the focus of competition between spacefaring powers in the next few decades, especially for the sampling-return mission. China is also planning to develop an asteroid exploration mission with surface sampling included. Within the Chinese space program, then, understating the impact dynamics related to granular regolith facilitate the development of efficient impact sampling mechanism designs for space missions. In this work, we use a three-dimensional N-body numerical code, DEMBody, to perform simulations of the low-speed impact sampling on granular regolith. Several different projectile shapes are used, i.e., cones of various angles, hemispheres, spheres and disks. The results show that the projectile shape significantly influences the excavation stage and leads to various amounts of collected mass in sampler canister, regarding which the 90° conical projectile exhibits preferable performance for impact sampling scheme.