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Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Simulating Imaging of Large Scale Radio Arrays on the Lunar Surface
Published on: July 30, 2020
The contact force between lunar-based equipment and lunar soil
Zheng-Han Chen1, Zhao-Dong Xu1, Hong-Fang Lu1
1China-Pakistan Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Smart Disaster Prevention of Major Infrastructures, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Abstract:
Lunar-based equipment plays a vital role in the exploration of the moon because it undertakes the tasks of moving, transporting, digging, and so on. In order to control the gait of lunar-based equipment more precisely and guarantee mobile stability, the contact mechanism between its foot and lunar soil is worthy of in-depth study. In this paper, a contact model is proposed to predict the stress, strain, and displacement both on the contact surface and in the lunar soil when the foot is under vertical load. The axial stress in the proposed contact model is verified through the experiment and its accuracy in the lunar equipment is verified through simulation. The error is in a reasonable range and the influence depth of load conforms to the experiment results. This paper provides a relatively accurate model to describe the contact force between the lunar-based equipment's foot and the lunar soil and will promote the research of lunar exploration.
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