Control system design of the Korean lunar lander demonstrator

In preparation for the lunar exploration program scheduled to be launched during the early 2020s in Korea, a lunar lander demonstrator, which will be used for developing and demonstrating lunar landing technologies, is being developed. The control configuration of the lunar lander demonstrator is determined with the consideration of available technologies and flight requirements. It is suggested that altitude control be achieved by clustering five 200 N monopropellant thrusters and attitude control with eight 3 N thrusters. A control algorithm designed to follow a predefined trajectory is developed using quaternion feedback. Control system configuration and control logic are verified by using computer simulations. Simulation results show that a soft landing with a touchdown velocity of less than 3 m/s is achieved. Attitude control performance is also verified using computer simulations. The developed control configuration will be further tested by hardware in the loop simulations and ground based firing tests during the next phase of the study.