Effects of Control Power and Inceptor Sensitivity on Lunar Lander Handling Qualities

摘要

A piloted simulation studied the handling qualities for a precision lunar-landing task from final approach tontouchdown. A coremodel of NASA’s Altair Lunar Lander was used to explore the design space around the nominalnvehicle configuration; details of the control and propulsion systems not available for that vehicle were derived fromnApollo Lunar Module data. The experiment was conducted on a large motion-base simulator. Eleven space shuttlenandApollo pilot astronauts and one test pilot served as evaluation pilots, providingCooper–Harper ratings, task loadnindex ratings, Bedford workload ratings, and qualitative comments. Following attitude guidance cues, the pilotsnevaluated control powers ranging from 1.1 to 4:3 deg =s2n, maximum rate commands from 3 to 20 deg =sn(equivalent to a range of inceptor sensitivities), and twomagnitudes of disturbancemoments arising frompropellantnslosh. The handling qualities were found to be satisfactory for the highest control powers and low inceptornsensitivities, with reduced sensitivity both improving handling qualities and reducing propellant use for a givenncontrol power. Pilots tended to use low attitude rates regardless of the maximum rate available or control power.nPropellant slosh degraded handling qualities approximately one Cooper–Harper rating.