Integrated Lander-Propulsion-GNC Framework for Autonomous Lunar Powered Descent

TL;DR

This paper introduces an integrated framework combining lander, propulsion, and guidance and control systems for autonomous lunar descent, validated through simulations with a focus on real-time guidance and robustness.

Contribution

It develops a unified successive convexification guidance algorithm that handles all nonconvexities for lunar descent, incorporating vehicle design and propulsion constraints.

Findings

Guidance algorithm achieves sub-50-meter landing accuracy.

Parametric analysis shows coupling between throttle, gimbal, and gravity.

Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate robustness under perturbations.

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated lander-propulsion-GNC framework for autonomous lunar powered descent. The BUG VTVL test vehicle serves as the reference platform, with the YUNT V0 throttleable bipropellant engine providing variable thrust across a wide operating envelope, integrated with a real-time successive convexification guidance solver. The vehicle design accounts for structural configuration, landing stability, center-of-mass migration, and inertia evolution, while the propulsion architecture defines the throttle ratio, dead-zone behavior, and gimbal authority that constrain the guidance problem. A successive convexification algorithm addresses all nonconvexities; thrust lower bounds, mass depletion coupling, and thruster dead-zone behavior are all handled within a unified second-order cone program solvable in near-real time. Parametric analysis reveals a fundamental coupling between throttle ratio, pointing authority, and surface gravity. Monte Carlo simulations validate guidance robustness, achieving sub-50-meter landing precision under realistic perturbations.