RESUMEN
Lunar-based equipment plays a vital role in the exploration of the moon because it undertakes the tasks of moving, transporting, digging, and so on. In order to control the gait of lunar-based equipment more precisely and guarantee mobile stability, the contact mechanism between its foot and lunar soil is worthy of in-depth study. In this paper, a contact model is proposed to predict the stress, strain, and displacement both on the contact surface and in the lunar soil when the foot is under vertical load. The axial stress in the proposed contact model is verified through the experiment and its accuracy in the lunar equipment is verified through simulation. The error is in a reasonable range and the influence depth of load conforms to the experiment results. This paper provides a relatively accurate model to describe the contact force between the lunar-based equipment's foot and the lunar soil and will promote the research of lunar exploration.
RESUMEN
As the cornerstone mission of the fourth phase of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Chang'E-7 (CE-7) was officially approved, and implementation started in 2022, including a main probe and a communication relay satellite. The main probe, consisting of an orbiter, a lander, a rover and a mini-flying probe, is scheduled to be launched in 2026. The lander will land on Shackleton crater's illuminated rim near the lunar south pole, along with the rover and mini-flying probe. The relay satellite (named Queqiao-2) will be launched in February 2024 as an independent mission to support relay communication during scientific exploration undertaken by Chang'E-4, the upcoming Chang'E-6 in 2024 and subsequent lunar missions. The CE-7 mission is mainly aimed at scientific and resource exploration of the lunar south pole. We present CE-7's scientific objectives, the scientific payloads configuration and the main functions for each scientific payload with its key technical specifications.
