Landing Dispersion Analysis for Hazard Avoidance Capable Flight Systems

Abstract

Hazard detection and avoidance (HDA) capability – realized through dedicated imaging sensors, control authority and adequate propulsive capability – is regarded as a key enabler for a safe access to topographically challenging landing sites. It thus enlarges the set of meaningful and scientific important sites. On the other hand this technology comes at the price of significant added design and qualification effort as well as its share in the system’s overall mass and power budgets allocation. To support landing site assessments of such systems and to facilitate trade studies between the potential HDA architectures versus the yielded probability of safe landing for a site of interest already in early mission study phases, a stochastic landing dispersion model has been developed. Hereby the HDA maneuver is modeled as a stochastic decision process based on Markov chains to map an initial dispersion at an arrival gate to a new dispersion pattern affected by the divert decision-making and system constraints. This model approach allows for a quick implementation of different architecture options or landing scenarios and is regarded complementary to the “classical” high-fidelity engineering simulator approach. This poster outlines the modeling techniques and describes its application to landing site and system studies.