Emergency Rendezvous Strategy in Descending Phase of Manned Mars Landing Missions

Abstract

In this research, the emergency rendezvous guidance strategy in manned Mars exploration missions was analyzed and designed, and the rapid rendezvous method between Mars landing module and spacecraft when the mission is terminated during landing was mainly discussed. First, the orbit transformation process of Mars landing phase was simplified. When the mission was terminated, according to the initial phase of the landing module and the spacecraft, the height of the far point of the Mars phase-modulated orbit was determined by the special point orbit change strategy. After the phase-modulation of the landing mudole was completed, it entered the circular orbit around the Mars. Then the terminal aiming point of far-range rendezvous was designed based on CW equation. The final far-range rendezvous was realized based on the guidance strategy of the near-circular deviation equation. Finally, the proposed emergency rendezvous strategy was verified by simulation. Simulation results show that the designed emergency rendezvous guidance strategy can effectively complete the rapid rendezvous and docking between the Mars landing module and the spacecraft during the emergency rendezvous of Hohmann descent and power descent.

Keywords

Mars exploration / manned space flight / rendezvous and docking / emergency rendezvous