HIGH-FIDELITY SMALL BODY LANDER SIMULATIONS

This paper provides an overview of the elements required for high-fidelity simulations of the motion of landers deployed to the surfaces of small bodies. Previous work on the motion of spherical landers is expanded to the general case of arbitrary shapes, which is challenging due to the high restitution of the necessary gravity, shape, and surface rock models. We implement established techniques that reduce the numerical burden of handling shape models by distinguishing between models used for gravity field evaluations and surface interactions. Significant attention is given to the implementation of a robust collision model for the non-eccentric collisions of arbitrary lander shapes. A C++ implementation of this software enables quick verification of deployment and surface mobility strategies in the presence of uncertainties in the lander release conditions, lander properties, and surface properties.