Abstract
On May 15, 2021, the Tianwen-1 lander successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. To ensure the success of the landing mission, an end-to-end Mars entry, descent, and landing (EDL) simulator is developed to assess the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system performance, and determine the critical operation and lander parameters. The high-fidelity models of the Mars atmosphere, parachute, and lander system that are incorporated into the simulator are described. Using the developed simulator, simulations of the Tianwen-1 lander EDL are performed. The results indicate that the simulator is valid, and the GNC system of the Tianwen-1 lander exhibits excellent performance.
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Abbreviations
- EDL:
-
entry, descent, and landing
- GNC:
-
guidance, navigation, and control
- IMU:
-
inertial measurement unit
- DEM:
-
digital elevation map
- DOM:
-
digital orthophoto map
- r I :
-
position vector
- v I :
-
velocity vector
- q :
-
attitude quaternion
- ω :
-
angular velocity vector
- C A, C N, C Z :
-
axial, normal, and side aerodynamic force coefficients, respectively
- C AP, C NP, C TP :
-
axial and normal aerodynamic force coefficients and pitch moment coefficient, respectively
- C Tx, C Ty, C Tz :
-
roll, pitch, and yaw moment coefficients, respectively
- C dTy, C dTz :
-
pitch and yaw dynamic derivative coefficients, respectively
- K KI, K AOM, K MEF, K Off :
-
inflation factor, area oscillation parameter, Mach efficiency factor, and offloading model parameter, respectively
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61803028) and Civil Aerospace Advance Research Project.
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Chao Xu received his B.S. degree from Beihang University, China, in 2010 and then received his M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in guidance, navigation, and control from China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), China, in 2013 and 2017, respectively. He is currently working as an engineer at Beijing Institute of Control Engineering (BICE), China. His research interests include autonomous navigation, vision-aided navigation, and simultaneous localization and mapping. E-mail: xc_1987@126.com.
Xiangyu Huang received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Since August 2005, he has been with Science and Technology on Space Intelligent Control Laboratory of Beijing Institute of Control Engineering (BICE), where he is currently a professor and senior research specialist. He was a guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) engineer of the Chang’e-3 lunar landing mission, and his current research area is GNC design for planetary landing missions. He won one State Technological Invention Award (second class) and three Ministerial and Provincial-level Science and Technology Awards (first class). E-mail: huangxyhit@sina.com.
Minwen Guo received her Ph.D. degree in guidance, navigation, and control from China Academy of Space Technology in 2014. Then, she worked as an engineer at Beijing Institute of Control Engineering. From 2016 to 2021, she participated in the Mars Tianwen-1 development and was engaged in the design of the Martian atmosphere entry guidance law. In 2019, she was certified as a senior engineer. Currently, her research interests are spacecraft entry guidance and trajectory optimization. E-mail: mwguo8500@163.com.
Maodeng Li received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, China, in 2006 and 2011, respectively. From September 2011 to August 2013, he was a postdoctoral research associate at BICE. Since August 2013, he has been with Science and Technology on Space Intelligent Control Laboratory of BICE as a senior engineer. His current research areas include spacecraft autonomous navigation and GNC design for planetary landing missions. E-mail: mdeng1985@gmail.com.
Jinchang Hu received his B.S., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees from Beihang University, Tsinghua University, and Beijing Institute of Control Engineering, respectively. He is currently a senior engineer at Beijing Institute of Control Engineering. His main research interests include spacecraft attitude and orbit control. E-mail: hujinchang@tsinghua.org.cn.
Xiaolei Wang is currently a professor at Beijing Institute of Control Engineering. His main research interest lies in spacecraft GNC system design.
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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
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Xu, C., Huang, X., Guo, M. et al. End-to-end Mars entry, descent, and landing modeling and simulations for Tianwen-1 guidance, navigation, and control system. Astrodyn 6, 53–67 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42064-021-0115-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42064-021-0115-z