Validation of Autonomous Hazard-Avoidance Mars Landing via Closed-Loop Simulations

Future planetary exploration missions will aim at landing a spacecraft in hazardous regions of a planet, thereby requiring the ability to autonomously perform the critical landing operations, including the avoidance of surface obstacles and the identification of the best landing site. These algorithms are rather complex and cannot be tested easily at moderate cost on a real system. Therefore, closed-loop software simulator tools are required to validate these new technologies, generate new advancements and help plan for future planetary exploration missions. This paper presents a closed-loop planetary landing simulator and its use in the validation of the hazard-avoidance landing technologies. The simulator emulates the real world with a 7-degree-offreedom landing dynamics, models of sensors and actuators and it closes the control loop with the on-board software that provides the “intelligence” to the landing vehicle. The paper will provide an overview of the Lidar-based guidance, navigation and control functions and it will demonstrate their successful validation through Monte Carlo simulations using the simulator adapted to a Mars landing mission.