Development of a Landing Leg with Active Buffering and Anchoring Functions Applied to the Small Body Landing Mechanism

It is microgravity on the small body, and its medium is unknown and diverse. The lander is easy to rebound or tip over when landing and easy to drift away after landing. Thus, the lander should have the functions such as cushioning, terrain adapting and anchoring. At present, the moon and Mars landers mostly use honeycomb aluminum to achieve passive buffering. Honeycomb aluminum has good buffering effect under heavy load. This paper proposes an electromagnetic damping and anchoring leg for the small body lander. The leg integrates the folding mechanism and the buffering mechanism as a part and can sense the landing force. This force signal is used to realize the buffering function of the landing leg. An ultrasonic drill is attached at the end of the landing leg to realize anchoring after landing. Landing and anchoring performances of the landing leg are tested.