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Advances in Aircraft and Spacecraft Science
  Volume 4, Number 5, September 2017 , pages 529-541
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12989/aas.2017.4.5.529
 

Analysis of landing mission phases for robotic exploration on phobos mar\'s moon
A. Stio, P. Spinolo, E. Carrera and R. Augello

 
Abstract
    Landing phase is one of the crucial and most important phases during robotic aerospace explorations. It concerns the impact of the landing module of a spacecraft on a celestial body. Risks and uncertainties of landing are mainly due to the morphology of the surface, the possible presence of rocks and other obstacles or subsidence. The present work quotes results of a computational analysis direct to investigate the stability during the landing phase of a lander on Phobos, a Mars Moon. The present study makes use of available software tools for the simulation analyses and results processing. Due to the nature of the system under consideration (i.e., large displacements and interaction between several systems), multibody simulations were performed to analyze the lander\'s behavior after the impact with the celestial body. The landing scenario was chosen as a result of a DOE (Design of Experiments) analysis in terms of lander velocity and position, or ground slope. In order to verify the reliability of the present multibody methodology for this particular aerospace issue, two different software tools were employed in order to emphasize two different ways to simulate the crash-box, a particular component of the system used to cushion the impact. The results show the most important frames of the simulations so as to provide a general idea about how lander behaves in its descent and some trends of the main characteristics of the system. In conclusion, the success of the approach is demonstrated by highlighting that the results (crash-box shortening trend and lander\'s behavior after the impact with the celestial body. The landing scenario was chosen as a result of a DOE (Design of Experiments) analysis in terms of lander velocity and position, or ground slope. In order to verify the reliability of the present multibody methodology for this particular aerospace issue, two different software tools were employed in order to emphasize two different ways to simulate the crash-box, a particular component of the system used to cushion the impact. The results show the most important frames of the simulations so as to provide a general idea about how lander behaves in its descent and some trends of the main characteristics of the system. In conclusion, the success of the approach is demonstrated by highlighting that the results (crash-box shortening trend and lander\'s kinetic energy) are comparable between the two tools and that the stability is ensured.
 
Key Words
    landing stability; DOE analysis; crash-box; multibody simulation
 
Address
A. Stio and P. Spinolo: Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. Strada Antica di Collegno 253, 10146 Torino, Italy
E. Carrera and R. Augello: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino,
Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
 

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