Predicting the Effect of Surface Properties on Enceladus for Landing

Abstract

The prospect of landing on the surface of Enceladus comes with the question of whether the surface conditions permit selection and certification of one or more safe landing sites in an area of high science value. On Enceladus, the search for biosignatures in plume materials is a high science value objective that correlates with proximity to the south polar terrain, where the plume deposition rate is highest; however, such areas may be unsafe if unsintered particles make the landing site unstable. To investigate this, the surface of Enceladus was modeled using the level set discrete element method. This method models the kinetics and kinematics of large groups of individual ice particles both in contact and sintered together. Using the model, a rigid footpad was initialized at a 1 m s−1 descent just above the ice surface under Enceladus gravity. Parameters studied were the sintering amount, particle size distribution, footpad geometry, and surface slope. The model predicted that some sintering is required for the surface to support a lander; however, too much sintering can cause a lander to bounce. For tests on sloped surfaces, landing could be possible on slopes as steep as 20° for certain conditions, but it is safest to land in areas with a slope angle of 15° or less. While slope angle and sintering level were much more important than footpad geometry, the hemisphere footpad had the best performance (lowest slipping) in most cases compared to the cone or disk.