2025-12-15 2025, Volume 12 Issue 6

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  • With the development of lunar exploration technology and continuous advancement of lunar exploration program,it has become a consensus among major space powers or organizations to build a lunar research station in future. First,common issues facing in the research and application of key equipment required for the construction and operation of the lunar research station were expounded. Then main categories,basic functions,and compositional characteristics of key lunar equipment were discussed and elaborated,in conjunction with the urgency of related equipment needs,technical feasibility and technological maturity. Furthermore, the issues faced by these devices working in synergy were addressed and countermeasures were proposed,providing a reference for the research,development,and application of related equipment.
  • In order to address the needs of multi-point repeated landing explorations on the lunar surface in the future,a leg-type reusable small lunar surface leaper was proposed. Firstly,a reusable landing buffer device was designed for the lunar surface leaper,and the basic configuration and repetitive buffering mechanism of the device were introduced. Secondly,a ground impact test system was established to verify the rationality of the design scheme at the working mechanism level. Thirdly,the single leg kinematics model and landing dynamic model of the landing buffer device were established,and the accuracy of the mathematical models was verified via virtual prototype simulation. Finally,with the optimization objective is of reducing the structural load on key parts of the landing buffer device during the landing buffer process,non-dominated sorting generic algorithm with elite strategy was used to optimize the design parameters of the buffer device,and the optimization results were verified by virtual prototype simulation. The research results indicate that the device’s workflow meets expectations,and the optimized design parameters can reduce structural loads of key parts during the landing buffer process by 12.49% and 7.33%,respectively. This can provide reference for the design of future lunar surface leapers.
  • Deep space bistatic radar facing some challenges in planetary exploration,including rapidly varying observation geometry,extremely low signal-to-noise ratios,and difficulty in calibrating channel gain and phase due to the absence of onboard calibration sources. To address these issues, a bistatic radar terrain inversion system tailored for deep space applications was developed. Using the SPICE (Spacecraft Planet Instrument C-matrix Events) toolkit and focusing on echo data acquired under near-backscatter conditions. The system integratd geometry modeling,data calibration,and multiparameter inversion of surface characteristics. The analysis demonstrates that the proposed system successfully extracted electromagnetic indicators associated with potential water-ice deposits in the lunar south polar region,including enhanced echo power,locally elevated circular polarization ratios (CPR),reduced dielectric constants,and disturbed cross-spectrum phase behavior. These combined features support the possible presence of polar water-ice deposits. The results verify the effectiveness of deep space bistatic radar for surface and material inversion and provide a scalable technical pathway for future bistatic radar applications in deep space missions.
  • To address the in-situ manufacturing requirements for lunar regolith on the moon surface,a novel lunar regolith melting and forming device was designed,incorporating concentrated solar energy,flexible optical fiber transmission, and powder bed fusion technology, considering the constraints imposed by the lunar environment and the processing conditions required for regolith forming. Constructing two experimental verification setups (one outdoor and one indoor),using basaltic material from Jilin University (JLU) as a proxy for lunar regolith, feasibility experiments were conducted utilizing both outdoor solar concentrators and indoor simulated solar radiation to verify the process of lunar regolith melting and forming. Experimental results reveal that at outdoor solar irradiance intensity of 636 W/m2and scanning speed of 1 mm/min,continuous lunar regolith sintering was achieved while due to the variability and limitations of natural sunlight, stable long-term operation of the device outdoors could not be maintained; sim;ulating the equivalent energy input from the lunar surface conditions using a solar simulator indoors,when the electrical power of the solar simulator was 5,600 W,scanning speed was 30 mm/min and layer thickness was 2 mm,the formed samples exhibited maximum apparent density,achieving an apparent density of 2.16 g/cm3and a compressive strength of 4.25 MPa. This study verifies the feasibility of melting and forming technology based on concentrated solar energy,offering valuable insights for the feasibility assessment of in-situ lunar construction schemes,and the design, calibration and verification of payload devices.
  • To avoid the dual-cavity locking challenge inherent in LIGO-type gravitational-wave detection systems,a high-sensitivity gravitational wave detection scheme was proposed. A single-link transmitted optical beam was used as a carrier, and the gravitational-wave-induced phase modulation on the beam was sensed and,in combination with Mach-Zehnder interferometry,was utilized to achieve high-sensitivity gravitational wave detection. A 10 000 km lunar laser ranging system was designed for the 0.1–10 Hz frequency band,and its achievable gravitational-wave detection sensitivity was evaluated under noise limitations from laser shot noise and test-mass radiation pressure noise. This study provides a reference for the development of a laser ranging-based experimental system aimed at high-sensitivity gravitational wave detection in the target frequency band.
  • The sealing ring of the heating furnace in the volatiles measurement instrument is prone to contamination by lunar dust during on-orbit use,affecting its performance. Therefore, a static sealing spring-energized sealing ring was designed which is resistant to high and low temperatures,capable of multiple repeated seals,and possesses good dust tolerance. In order to verify the stable sealing performance of the sealing ring under moon dust contamination,a test platform was constructed to evaluate the changes in sealing performance after contamination by simulated lunar dust. The results show that under extreme conditions,with a sealing force of only 300 N,the leakage rate was less than 9 × 10–4 Pa·m3/s,increasing sealing force was to be the most effective way to reduce leakage rate,and within an appropriate range of sealing force,the sealing ring was capable of multiple repeated seals. This study provides a reference for on-orbit application of the lunar soil volatiles measurement instrument.
  • To address the problem that the success rate of two-way laser ranging for “Tiandu-1” communication and navigation test satellite is constrained by multiple factors and lacks a systematic mission-planning strategy,a comprehensive solution integrating time-window optimization and key parameter regulation was proposed. By constructing a time window model for lunar satellite laser ranging,the optimal observation period was determined. A mathematical model was developed incorporating factors such as light aberration,ranging distance, and atmospheric attenuation,followed by numerical simulations. A quantitative analysis of the influence mechanism of each factor on the success rate was made. Results show that satellite aberration was the major influencing factor,which, when optimized,improved the success rate by more than three times. In particular, observation conditions with satellite elevation angles exceeding 30°,near-Earth geometries,and favorable atmospheric conditions can significantly enhance the echo return rate. Based on simulation results,an optimized observation window selection strategy was proposed for “Queqiao” satellite mission planning,providing a universal approach to enhancing the success rate of lunar orbital laser ranging.
  • The parachute deployment conditions during the terminal entry phase in Mars landing missions exhibit critical impact on landing precision. In this article, aiming at the requirements of safe parachute deployment and accurate landing, a multi-dimensional parachute deployment box for determining deployment condition during Mars landing was proposed. First, an extreme-range optimization model was established, synthesizing the dynamics and constraints of both parachute descent and powered descent phases. Then, on the basis of the two-dimensional altitude-velocity deployment box, a multi-dimensional parachute deployment box characterized by altitude, velocity, flight-path angle, and extreme range was constructed through the integration of extreme range information. Furthermore, an evaluation index for landing precision was formulated and a deployment control logic was proposed for minimizing landing deviation. Finally, the proposed deployment box was simulated in a Mars landing mission. The results demonstrate that the proposed box effectively satisfies safe deployment and landing precision demands, eliminating the range-to-go error at the terminal of the entry phase.
  • Taking the connecting ridge between Shackleton and de Gerlache craters as the research area,based on real-time illumination simulation data from November 1,2026,to February 28,2027,a dynamic illumination dataset with a spatial resolution of 20 m/pixel and a temporal resolution of 1 hour was constructed. A deep-learning framework is proposed to recognize regions with continuous 3-day illumination,in which an improved VGG network extracts illumination-friendly regions from each temporal frame,a bidirectional GRU network captures temporal illumination characteristics,and a consistent temporal-spatial attention mechanism highlights key spatiotemporal illumination features. An output head network integrates these features to generate target regions. Based on the extracted regions and an eight-direction rover mobility model,a Sun-synchronous A* path planning algorithm is further optimized to enable illumination-aware navigation. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method accurately recognizes 3-day consecutive illumination-friendly regions in the 20 m/pixel dynamic dataset and effectively supports efficient rover path planning in well-illuminated areas of the lunar south pole.
  • To address the impact of critical-scale lunar soil particles on the drilling process,a parameter identification model for critical-scale lunar soil particles based on ensemble learning algorithms was proposed. Simulation analysis was conducted using Discrete element method (DEM) simulation software,and a central composite design was used to conduct experiments under various operating conditions to obtain the load characteristics of lunar drilling tools under different conditions. Taking model took critical-scale lunar soil particle size and offset position as main variables,torque data from the lunar drilling process were collected. By extracting the features of the experimental data were extracted. Based on this,the ensemble learning algorithm was introduced for the first time for parameter identification of critical-scale lunar soil particles, and a bivariate model was developed to simultaneously identify particle size and offset position. Experimental results show that the ensemble learning algorithm achieved high accuracy in predicting particle positions,with a mean squared error (MSE) of 0,and it also demonstrated good performance in particle size identification,with an MSE of 1.61. This model effectively solves the parameter identification challenge under the condition that particle size and location cannot be directly observed. These findings can provide a reference for developing identification model technologies for autonomous drilling and sampling.