First-round design of the flight scenario for Chang’e-2’s extended mission:take off from lunar orbit

Chang＇e-2, Chinese second lunar probe, was inserted into a 100 km altitude low lunar orbit on October 9th, 2010, its purpose is to continuously photograph the lunar surface and possibly chosen landing sites for future lunar missions. The probe will still carry considerable amount of propellant after completing all prescribed tasks in about six months. After the successful launch of Chang＇e-2, we began designing the probe＇s subsequent flight scenario, considering a total impulse of 1 100 m/s for takeoff from low lunar orbit and a maximum 3× 10^6 km distance for Earth-probe telecom- munication. Our first-round effort proposed a preliminary flight scenario that involves consecutive arrivals at the halo orbits around the Earth-Moon L1/L2 and Sun-Earth L1/L2 points, near-Earth asteroid flyby, Earth return, and lunar impact. The designed solution of Chang＇e-2＇s subsequent flight scenario is a multi-segment flight trajectory that serves as a reference for making the final decision on Chang＇e-2＇s extended mission, which is a flight to the Sun-Earth L2 point, and a possible scheme of lunar impact via Earth flyby after remaining at the Sun-Earth L2 point was also presented. The proposed flight trajectory, which possesses acceptable solution accuracy for mission analysis, is a novel design that effectively exploits the invariant manifolds in the circular restricted three-body problem and the patched-manifold-conic method.

Near-Earth asteroid flyby trajectories from the Sun-Earth L2 for Chang’e-2’s extended flight

Driven by curiosity about possible flight options for the Chang＇e-2 spacecraft after it remains at the Sun-Earth L2 point, effective approaches were developed for designing preliminary fuel-optimal near-Earth asteroid flyby trajectories. The approaches include the use of modified unstable manifolds, grid search of the manifolds＇ parameters, and a two-impulse maneuver for orbital phase matching and z-axis bias change, and are demonstrated to be effective in asteroid target screening and trajectory optimization. Asteroid flybys are expected to be within a distance of 2 × 10^7 km from the Earth owing to the constrained Earth-spacecraft communication range. In this case, the spacecraft＇s orbital motion is significantly affected by the gravities of both the Sun and the Earth, and therefore, the concept of the ＂he- liocentric oscillating-Kepler orbit＂ is proposed, because the classical orbital elements of the flyby trajectories referenced in the heliocentric inertial frame oscillate significantly with respect to time. The analysis and results presented in this study show that, among the asteroids whose orbits are the most accurately predicted, ＂Toutatis＂, ＂2005 NZ6＂, or ＂2010 CL19＂ might be encountered by Chang＇e-2 in late 2012 or 2013 with total impulses less than 100 rn/s.

Modeling method and preliminary model of Asteroid Toutatis from Chang'E-2 optical images

Shape modeling is fundamental to the analysis of dynamic environment and motion around asteroid. Chang＇E- 2 successfully made a flyby of Asteroid 4179 Toutatis and obtained plenty of high-resolution images during the mis- sion. In this paper, the modeling method and preliminary model of Asteroid Toutatis are discussed. First, the optical images obtained by Chang＇E-2 are analyzed. Terrain and silhouette features in images are described. Then, the modeling method based on previous radar model and preliminary information from optical images is proposed. A preliminary polyhedron model of Asteroid Toutatis is established. Finally, the spherical harmonic coefficients of Asteroid Toutatis based on the polyhedron model are obtained. Some parameters of model are analyzed and compared. Although the model proposed in this paper is only a preliminary model, this work offers a valuable reference for future high-resolution models.

基于CryoSat-2数据的纳木那尼冰川冰面高程变化方法研究

随着全球气候变暖,中亚地区大部分冰川逐渐变薄。高海拔山地冰川的变化会影响到周边地区的水资源和海平面变化,因此,我们需要高精度的地表高程观测数据来监测冰面高程变化。本文以喜马拉雅山脉西段的纳木那尼冰川为例,基于CryoSat-2卫星雷达高度计SARIn模式数据,修改了伪重复轨平面拟合方法,并计算了从2010年8月至2016年7月的冰面高程变化。纳木那尼冰面平均高程变化率为-0.47±0.44 m/year,整体呈现变薄趋势,与前人文献的结果基本一致,表明CryoSat-2数据在山地冰川使用伪重复轨平面方法估算高程变化有效可行。

Laser altimetry data of Chang'E-1 and the global lunar DEM model

The Laser AltiMeter (LAM), as one of the main payloads of Chang'E-1 probe, is used to measure the topography of the lunar surface. It performed the first measurement at 02:22 on November 28th, 2007. Up to December 4th 2008, the total number of measurements was approximately 9.12 million, covering the whole surface of the Moon. Using the LAM data, we constructed a global lunar Digtal Elevation Model (DEM) with 3 km spatial resolution. The model shows pronounced morphological characteristics, legible and vivid details of the lunar surface. The plane positioning accuracy of the DEM is 445 m (1σ), and the vertical accuracy is 60 m (1σ). From this DEM model, we measured the full range of the altitude difference on the lunar sur-face, which is about 19.807 km. The highest point is 10.629 km high, on a peak between crater Korolev and crater Dirichlet-Jackson at (158.656°W, 5.441°N) and the lowest point is -9.178 km in height, inside crater Antoniadi (172.413°W, 70.368°S) in the South Pole-Aitken Basin. By comparison, the DEM model of Chang'E-1 is better than the USA ULCN2005 in accuracy and resolution and is probably identical to the DEM of Japan SELENE, but the DEM of Chang'E-1 reveals a new lowest point, clearly lower than that of SELENE.

Auto-compensation of velocity-height ratio for Chang’E-2 satellite CCD stereo camera

The TDI-CCD imaging method using auto-compensation of velocity-height ratio (VHR) was applied to Chang’E-2 satellite CCD stereo camera.Factors that influence the image quality of the camera were discussed,among which the mismatch error in VHR was found to be the main cause.An auto-compensation scheme for VHR was developed.The validity and effectiveness were proved by the on-orbit high quality images.

Chang’E-2 satellite asymmetric-descent orbit control technology

To accomplish high-resolution imaging of the preselected landing area, it was necessary for the Chang＇E-2 mission to perform orbital maneuvering on the far side of the moon to meet the conditional height requirement of the imaging area. Engine shutdown would be executed invisibly on the back side of the moon if the descent maneuver mode opposite to the target perilune or the fuel optimal maneuver mode was used. To ensure the satellite safety, the project collectivety required that the engine shutdown should be designed to be executed in the domestic segmental arcs and meet the requirement of satellite emergency treatment simultaneously. Accordingly, the asymmetric-descent orbit control technology was adopted by offsetting the ma- neuver point, which obtained the orbit control parameters of finite-thrust mode with an iteration algorithm and modified the results with target perilune drift estimation. The Chang＇E-2 satellite declined to the target of 100 km×l5 km orbit successfully on 26 October 2010, and has been flying for 32 circles in the experimental orbit to accomplish the preselected landing area imaging. This paper describes the mechanism and realization method of the asymmetric-descent orbit control technology and evaluates the maneuver effect with the actual mission data.

Positioning reduction in the real-time phase of Chang'E-2 satellite

The precision of VLBI tracking delays and the positioning reduction results during the real-time tracking phase of the Chang'E-2 satellite are statistically analyzed.The application of the positioning reduction to the real-time monitoring of pivotal arcs of the Chang'E-2 satellite is discussed.The technical specifications of the tests of tracking and control systems in X-band are estimated and evaluated via the positioning reduction method.Useful methodology and software are prepared and practical experience in engineering and technology is accumulated for the follow-up lunar and deep space explorations of China.

Automatic Stitching Method for Chang＇E-2 CCD Images of the Moon

The lunar map is a product of primary scientific objectives of lunar exploration. Aiming at the characteristics of the Chang＇E-2 CCD data, an automatic stitching method used for 2C level CCD data from Chang＇E-2 lunar mission is proposed. Combining with the image registration technique and the characteristics of Chang＇E CCD images, the fast method proposed not only can overcome the contradiction of the high spatial resolution of the CCD images and the low positioning accuracy of the location coordinates, but also can speed up the processing and minimize the utilization of human resources to produce lunar mosaic map. Meanwhile, a new lunar map from 70oN to 70oS with spatial resolution of less than 10 m has been completed by the proposed method. Its average relative location accuracy of the adjacent orbits CCD image data is less than 3 pixels.

Lunar digital elevation model and elevation distribution model based on Chang’E-1 LAM data

More than 8.2 million effective data samples were obtained by the Chang’E-1 Laser Altimeter (LAM).In order to produce a global topographic model of the moon with improved accuracy,a hierarchical many-knot spline method was proposed in this paper.This algorithm makes use of a hierarchy of control lattices to approximate or interpolate the LAM data.Based on the proposed algorithm,a 0.0625°×0.0625° grid of global lunar DEM was obtained and it was compared with ULCN2005,CLTMs01 and Kaguya models,respectively.At the same time,this paper explored the elevation distribution law and established the elevation distribution model.It is shown that the global lunar and nearside elevation distribution is positively skewed and leptokurtic normal distribution,and the farside elevation distribution is a positively skewed and platykurtic normal distribution.

嫦娥二号影像密集匹配及DEM制作方法

嫦娥二号卫星搭载了一台两线阵CCD立体相机,以线阵推扫成像方式获取了覆盖全月球的7m分辨率影像。与嫦娥一号影像相比,影像分辨率大大提高,月表地貌细节更加丰富,制作高分辨率月表DEM更加复杂而困难,现有的基于嫦娥影像制作方法难以满足应用需求。针对嫦娥二号影像特点,在基于RPC模型生成近似核线影像基础上,进行金字塔影像匹配,实现了原始影像的逐像素匹配;计算匹配点的月面坐标后,采用基于反距离插值方法生成月表三维地形;对于图像阴影等地形漏洞,采用基于径向基函数进行插值填补。试验结果表明,该方法生成的月表三维地形DEM数据,能准确真实地表达高分辨率的月表地形地貌细节,并较好地应用于嫦娥二号全月球三维地形DEM数据产品的生产任务中。