Structure And Experimental Analysis Of Pneumatic Landing Ladder For Lunar Rover

The investigation and exploration of the source and reserves on the Moon is the key step to research other planets out of the Earth since it is the nearest objects from the Earth. As an important country in space technology, China must conduct research on the Moon as well as get his place, because it is an inevitable choice for China to develop the space activities. Lunar exploration in China can further firmly establish the status as a great country, and strengthen the Chinese nation's pride and cohesion, and expand their political influence with important significance by implementing the lunar exploration. As an aerospace equipment, the landing ladder not only needs to meet the demands of stiffness and strength, but also needs to meet the higher demands of the weight. This paper will focus on the structural design and experimental investigation of the pneumatic landing ladder.Firstly, a reasonable landing ladder structure is determined by demonstrating the approaches of loading and releasing of lunar rover. The main difficulties are the locking problem on the folding point and actuation for deploying of the pneumatic landing ladder. The latch locking mechanism was designed to lock. The pneumatic power and the spring force are used to actuate the deploying force are used to actuate the deploying motion of the ladder.Secondly, the dynamic model of the landing ladder is built, and the kinematic simulation is conducted by ADAMS software. The influence of the parameters on the movement of the landing ladder is analyzed through the design of experiments panel in the ADAMS software, and the effective ranges of these parameters are obtained. Then, the static analysis of the landing ladder is conducted by the finite element analysis software of PATRAN/NASTRAN in order to decrease the weight. Then, the natural frequencies of the lading ladder are calculated, which are the precondition to design the wheel structure.Finally, the testing prototype is developed, reasonable test system environment is constructed on earth. The reliability of deploying movement and the impact on the surface are analyzed by deploying experiments of the landing ladder. The improvement proposals are put forward according to the test results. The test results match the analytical results very well.