Calculation approach of the equivalent roll stiffness and damping of the lunar roving vehicle

Lunar roving vehicle (LRV) is indispensable in the mission of the lunar exploration, and the technology of the lunar surface activity is the key of the manned lunar exploration and the establishment of the lunar base. The LRV not only needs to take the payload, but also should guarantee the astronauts' safety in moving. Therefore the handling stability of the LRV needs to be researched, and the equivalent roll stiffness and damping are the important parameters in the dynamics equations and affect the computational accuracy of the roll-over performance. The instantaneous equivalent roll stiffness and damping of the double wishbone arm type of LRV have been calculated, and the results show that they are not constant values and but are variable during the rolling movement. However the roll equivalent stiffness is approximately a constant value when the energy equivalence approach of the rolling process is adopted. Thus, the calculations of the dynamical equations with different roll stiffness and damping values of the different methods are contrast with the dynamical simulation of the LRV, the accurate equivalent roll stiffness and damping value are obtained through the analysis, and it will lay the foundation for the research of the handling dynamics and roll-over safety of the LRV.