Attitude and Anti-Bouncing Control to enhance the Movements Capabilities of MASCOT-like Landers

Abstract

Exploration of small planetary bodies is a fast growing field of interest. Compared to the exploration of Mars and Moon it poses larger uncertainties in terms of the surface structure and composition as well as risks and challenges due to low gravity. DLR’s Asteroid Lander MASCOT has made a first major step towards the mobile exploration of asteroids. However, its mobility was feed-forward controlled only and needed excessive simulations and information on the asteroid before the landing to operate sufficiently robust. For future hopping explorers this paper proposes an attitude controller with additional control mechanisms to a) land in a nominal measurement orientation after every hop and b) to diminish kinetic energy in the system as fast as possible to minimize bouncing. This allows the landers to operate for longer periods of time with larger time slots for scientific measurements, also reducing the mission risk due to landing in false orientation.