Conceptual Design Of A Lunar Lander For Second Phase Of China Lunar Exploration Program
- Paper number
IAC-07-A3.6.B.04
- Author
Dr. Jing Peng, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China
- Coauthor
Dr. Zhongyao Liu, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China
- Coauthor
Mrs. He Zhang, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China
- Year
2007
- Abstract
In the second phase of China Lunar Exploration Program, a lunar lander will be launched and perform soft lunar landing and in-situ lunar exploration. Through lunar landing mission, China will break through key technologies of lunar soft landing and roving on lunar surface, develop lunar lander and rover, while the engineering system for China lunar exploration will be built up at the end of the second phase of China Lunar Exploration Program. The landing mission will have its primary scientific goals of to investigate the landscape of lunar surface and geological structure, material composition and usable resources of lunar surface, to study lunar internal structure, to explore the circumstance among Sun, Earth and Moon and build up observatory based on Moon. In the landing mission, the probe will include a soft lander and a lunar rover. The probe will be launched into Lunar Transfer Orbit directly by launch vehicle. The soft lander will then execute en route trajectory correction, lunar orbit insertion and enter lunar low orbit. After that main thruster of the lander will fire and decrease velocity of the probe and finish descent at desired location of Moon surface. The rover will be released after deployment of lunar lander. Main features of Chinese lunar lander will be present in this paper. There is also brief information about conceptual design of main subsystems, such as payloads, structure and mechanism, navigation and control, telemetry and telecommunication, power supply and thermal control. There are options for many types of payloads for Chinese landing mission include panorama camera, Alpha particle/X-ray spectrometer, interference imaging spectrometer, infrared spectrometer, laser reflector, microwave pseudo-code ranging transmitter, seismographer, ultraviolet camera, moon-based telescope, ultra low frequency radio spectrometer, space environmental experiment instrument, descent camera, impact instrument, thermal characteristic instrument, mechanics characteristic instrument, electric characteristic instrument, lunar dust detector, meteorites counter, experimental material and etc. They will be carefully selected to achieve mission goals while meeting constraints of the lander. Or they can be allocated in two landing missions. The structure of lander will be truss bridge integrated with panel, where truss bridge is the major structure and panel is auxiliary. There will also be solar panel lock, release and drive mechanism, directional antenna lock, release and drive mechanism, mast lock, release and drive mechanism, landing cushion mechanism, lock and release mechanism of lunar rover in the lander in mechanism subsystem. The navigation and control system will include star sensor, sun sensor, Inertial Measurement Unit, navigation sensors such as ranging, speedometer and lunar surface imaging, navigation and control computer, attitude control thruster. There are two options in main thruster subsystems, one is adjustable thruster and another is multi-thruster combination. The telemetry and telecommunication system comprise of S-band omni-direction receiver, antenna and network, X-band omni-direction transmitter, antenna and network, X-band directional antenna, X-band low gain wide beam antenna, small deep space responder and radio network, beacon antenna. In power supply system, power will be supplied by the gallium arsenide solar cells, RTG (radioisotope thermal generator) and lithium ion battery. There are also power source controller, cable and pyrotechnic controller. Thermal control of the lander will be achieved using thermal paint and insulating blankets and, electric heaters, thermal sensors, active thermal devices such as thermal switchers and radiators, and common heat loop based on LHP (Loop Heat Pipe) capillary pump. At the end, the latest updates of development of the Chinese lunar lander are presented.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-A3.6.B.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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