A Preliminary Discussion on the Proposal and Feasibility of Atmospheric Planet Suspension Exploration

Abstract

At present, the large-scalemaneuver capability of space probes in orbiting exploration, landing exploration, exploration with rovers and sampling and return back to Earth, is greatly constrained by landform features and topography conditions. The Suspension exploration is a newly developed method for exploration mission on the planets with atmosphere. By “flight” maneuver, the probes can take full advantage of planetary atmosphere to collect more scientific exploration data. By Suspension exploration, the maneuver defects of probes can be overcame. In this paper, the concepts of a Suspension probe and its working modes are proposed. A six-degree dynamic model of the probe is set up. Together with the careful study on the environment of the planets with atmosphere in solar system, the dynamic characteristics of the Suspension probe are demonstrated and its exploration targets are listed out. Based on these study results, the evaluation coefficient of feasibility (ECoF) of the Suspension probe is proposed for the first time, thus to lay out theoretical foundation for the feasibility study on the application of Suspension probes in deep space exploration.

Keywords

Suspension exploration / planet with atmosphere / feasibility / dynamics model