Energy dissipation mechanism of particle damping landmark on small celestial bodies

This study investigates the energy dissipation mechanism of particle-damping artificial landmarks during their deployment on planetary surfaces. Deploying inertial artificial landmarks under microgravity conditions poses significant challenges, as minimal rebound velocities can result in significant rebound or direct escape from the planetary surface. Successful deployments of artificial landmarks in Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 missions of JAXA have attracted much attention from space community. However, the underlying mechanism of the relationship between damping performance and the physical parameters of damping particles has not been thoroughly elucidated. In this study, the discrete element method is adopted to create a simulation platform within the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) framework, where its reliability is validated through ground experiments. Parametric simulations are conducted by taking damping particles and regolith particles into account. How the radius and amounts of the inner particles in the damper shell affecting the energy dispassion are investigated in detail. The research findings demonstrate that the quantity, radius, and density of particles in the damping device are crucial factors in determining damping performance. Additionally, the cohesion coefficient of the planetary regolith surface influences the effectiveness of damping as well. Such a study can provide a detailed design guideline for future particle damping landmarks.