Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Base-Extension Separation Mechanism for Spacecraft Landing

摘要

Future planetary exploration requires spacecraft to land softly on rough terrain and in severe environments. Since conventional landing methods have problems such as high rebounds and excessive resource consumption, the base-extension separation mechanism, which combines springs and separable units, is proposed as a novel landing mechanism. Although the mechanism performed good soft landings, the performance evaluation was limited. Therefore, this study evaluated its performance multilaterally. The proposed technology was analytically compared with two other landing technologies: a generalized-hybrid momentum exchange impact damper and an aluminum foam landing gear. The proposed technology suppressed rebound and acceleration better than the generalized momentum exchange impact damper. Once the components of the proposed technology had been lightened, its energy conversion efficiency matched that of the aluminum foam landing gear. In addition, experiments were conducted using small-scale models to confirm the feasibility. The experiments showed that the proposed technology has good soft landing performance, matching the results of the simulations. Finally, design optimization was discussed for further performance improvements. It was clarified that both the spring stroke and the pre-tension length of the spring should be large. Optimizing the design of the spring improved its performance and compensated for its disadvantages.