Autonomous impulse maneuver control method for soft landing on small bodies

Due to the uncertainty of dynamics parameters, including the small body's rotational dynamics and gravity field, et al., the control method should be highly autonomous and robust to achieving pinpoint landing on small bodies. This paper presents an autonomous close-loop feedback control method solving the problem of descent impulse maneuver planning for small body landing. Deorbit maneuver was firstly designed according to the nominal dynamic parameters to drive the probe to the target landing site. In the approach phase, maneuver timing as also magnitude and direction of brake maneuvers were planed using artificial potential function guidance method. Finally, performance of the autonomous guidance and control system was verified by using the numerical simulation. The results show that the control method can effectively suppress the disturbing to ensure the soft landing mission.