Design and Development of DALBIT-1: Earth-Based Lander Test Bed

Abstract

DALBIT-1, a miniature-sized, fully integrated, Earth-based lander test bed was designed and developed for the vertical takeoff and vertical landing flight demonstration. Mission and design requirements and vehicle subsystems were selected to accommodate the vertical takeoff and vertical landing preliminary flight demonstration. Subsystems, including the propulsion system, structure, avionics, and ground control station, were designed, developed, and integrated as a system. The flight control system of DALBIT-1 was generated to enable the vehicle an autonomous flight and was validated using a computer simulation in a MATLAB/Simulink environment. Simulation results show that DALBIT-1 adequately follows the predetermined trajectory and softly lands on the surface. The developed test bed performed a series of static fire tests and water/propellant flow tests to enhance the predictability of the flight control system. Using the developed flight control system, finally, the preliminary flight demonstration was conducted and proved the capability of the test bed of performing a vertical liftoff, vertical landing flight.