A Landing Method with Intentional Tumbling for Small Lunar Lander

Abstract

In this paper, the authors propose a novel landing method named “Two-step Landing Method” for small lunar lander which is needed to be designed considering constrains from envelope area of rocket and the weight of the lander. The proposed method enforces intentional body tumbling at the contact of main leg. We analyzed its dynamics by three-dimensional simulations which consider lander’s attitude and lateral velocity and landing site’s slope angle. Numerical simulation models have been designed on Mechanical Dynamics Software “ADAMS”, and lander models refer to “SLIM” which is a small lander proposed by ISAS/JAXA. It is found that the proposed landing method can land on steep slope by tilting body attitude toward inclination direction of landing site. Especially in the case of landing with lateral residual velocity, the proposed method has higher landing stability than conventional landing method.