ESA multibody simulator for spacecrafts' ascent and landing in a microgravity environment

Abstract

The investigation of planets, moons and small bodies, including comets and asteroids can contribute substantially to our understanding of the formation and history of the solar system. In situ observations by landers play an important role in this field: for example, the Rosetta Lander Philae has been the first spacecraft to accomplish a soft touchdown on a comet. Since the last decade, the urgency to anticipate hardware performance and correlate testing results with mathematical models is generating the trend for more extensively applying multibody approach in supporting the design and verification of complex aerospace systems, from the early phases of the project. Some of the essential multibody technologies assisting the analysis of this class of problems consist of a reliable attitude control algorithm, a variable-step and variable-order numerical integrator and a consistent contact-friction formulation. This paper illustrates the particular implementation of these crucial features in the European Space Agency's multibody software DCAP and shows a direct application to a feasibility case study.