Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
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Materials Today: Proceedings 24 (2020) 1235–1243 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings
2214-7853 © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and
Manufacturing Applications, IConAMMA 2018.
IConAMMA 2018
Design, Analysis and Stability testing of Lunar Lander for
Soft-Landing
Aravind G
a
, Vishnu S
a
, Amarnath K V
a
, Hithesh U
a
, Harikrishnan P
a
, Pramod
Sreedharan
a
, Ganesh Udupa
a,
*
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kollam and 690546, India
Abstract
The part that first comes in contact with the ground is the base of the lander-footpad. The response to impact of the footpad is
very important. The footpad should be able to withstand the impact forces a reasonable number of times, for various landing
experiments. It should be both lightweight and strong and at the same time it should be able to absorb a large amount of shock
and transmit only a smaller portion towards the legs. A scaled down model was chosen and the footpad was designed and
fabricated for that model. The model was designed, simulated and analyzed for its durability. The shock absorbers on the legs
also play an important role for maintaining the stability of the lander. Experiments were conducted for the static and dynamic
stability of the lunar lander for soft landing and found out the angle at which the lander topples.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and
Manufacturing Applications, IConAMMA 2018.
Keywords: :Lunar lander;footpad;shock absorber;soft landing;topple
1. Introduction
The lunar explorations being carried out have increased and are focused once again through continuous
researches. For acceptable stability within the range of touchdown velocities considered, this boundary must lie
outside the design envelope. Extensive contents and problems about soft landing and landing stability are due to
complexity and diversity of moon surface environment. A superficial layer of lunar soil can be simulated and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +918129114286.
E-mail address: vshnsuresh@gmail.com