Hopping exploration on the microgravity asteroid with a flexible lander

Hopping exploration on the asteroid surface is a promising technique for comprehensive asteroid research. Controllable high-precision hopping is still challengeable due to asteroids' irregular microgravity and rugged terrain. This paper proposes a feasible hopping exploration strategy with a flexible lander. The dynamics for efficient hopping simulation are introduced, which consist of the asteroid's dynamics model, the lander's flexible dynamics, the collision dynamics, and the coupling dynamics. One control strategy for high-precision hopping is proposed, which applies simple feed-back control and the nearest neighbor method to get the desired hopping moment. A series of signal hopping simulations on a smooth microgravity plane are discussed. The single hopping result combined the control strategy is applied for directional hopping exploration of smooth and rugged microgravity planes, showing the feasibility of the proposed exploration strategy. What is more, one scenario of hopping exploration on asteroid Bennu is presented, demonstrating the potential of the flexible lander in controllable high-precision asteroid hopping exploration.