On board information fusion for multi satellite which is based on spatial computing mode can improve the satellites’capability such as the accuracy of detection, the confidence of recognition, the precision of position and the coverage of spatial temporal for disaster monitoring, maritime surveillance and other emergent or continuous persistent observing situations. Firstly, the necessity of on board information fusion is analyzed. Secondly, the on board processing developments are summarized and the existing problems are discussed. And thirdly, the key technology and concepts of on board information fusion are studied in the fields of target feature representation, target association, feature level fusion, autonomous mission planning and other issues. Finally the future developments of on board information fusion are studied and discussed.

In view of the key engineering and technical issues in the development of cislunar space, studies are carried out from the perspectives of cislunar space transportation, resources of the Moon and small celestial bodies, lunar robots, and the cislunar space economic system. Cislunar space transportation can be divided into phases such as round-trip between the Earth and the orbit, Earth-Moon transfer, and lunar landing and ascent. It is necessary to develop different vehicles, transportation modes and reuse schemes according to the environmental characteristics of different phases, and consider the integrated design of the space station near the Earth and manned lunar exploration. The abundant resources of the Moon and small near-Earth objects are the material basis for the development of cislunar space. The geostationary orbit is an ideal industrial park in cislunar space. The vacuum, low gravity, low temperature and sufficient solar energy in lunar space facilitate the development of electrification transportation such as magnetic levitation, space elevator and skyhook. Facing the harsh lunar environment and scarce human resources, the lunar robot will play a leading and main role in infrastructure construction, astronaut accompaniment and assistance, human-machine cooperation. The development of cislunar space is not only for manned landing on the Moon, but also for the establishment of cislunar economic system. It will promote the national interests to extend from the land and the sea to cislunar space, promote the development of space industry from the earth to cislunar space, and accelerate the progress of human society from the earth civilization to the solar system civilization.

The development of the Long March 8 (LM-8) series of launch vehicles is reviewed, which is designed to fill the gap of the payload capability of 3 to 4.5 tons to the sun-synchronous orbits (SSO), and to derive the no-side-booster configuration covering the payload capability of less than 3 tons, thus taking the main role of the madium-lift launchers in the launch market to constitute China’s next-generation of launch vehicles. On this basis, research and development of the LM-8 variants is being carried out to further improve the performance and shorten the launch period. The key technologies of the LM-8 with fundamental configurations are introduced, and the innovations of the upgraded version being developed are discussed, including the closed-loop self-pressurization for the hydrogen tank, the hydrogen and oxygen common bottom tank with a diameter of 3.35 meter and PMI sandwiches, etc. In line with the construction of the Wenchang commercial launch site, the future development of Long March 8 series is prospected.

Manned lunar exploration missions require thousands of tons of launch vehicles to deliver astronauts and a small amount of payload to the lunar surface. To improve the overall performance of manned lunar exploration missions, a systematic analysis is conducted at the overall level, including the design concepts, design methods, model optimization, and data correction. The proposed overall technologies include probability-based overall design, integrated design of spacecraft and rocket, optimization design based on digital models, and overall performance improvement based on measured data correction. Based on the practice of the overall design of manned lunar exploration missions, the application effects of these technologies are summarized, and the direction for future research is pointed out. These technologies play an important role in improving the overall performance of manned lunar exploration and maximizing the efficiency.

A novel approach of predicting aerodynamic data via artificial intelligence technique is proposed in this article. Based on wind tunnel tests of partial test states, combined with several CFD results, machine learning via Kriging model is used to predict the whole aerodynamic characteristics to shorten the development cycle and reduce the expensive wind tunnel tests as many as possible. After solving several key technical problems such as the selection of correlation functions, hyper parameters training, data verification and application of “man in loop” technique, the complete set of aerodynamic data was obtained successfully and used to the control law design in the rocket first stage landing area control project with grid fins. The correctness of the proposed method was validated by a flight test on 26th July, 2019, which was carried out successfully for the first time in China. At the end, the grading of technology maturity degree for the artificial intelligence technique is presented to evaluate application to aerodynamic engineering design problems.

In this paper mainly starting from the development background and practical significance of space on orbit manufacturing technology, the development of on orbit manufacturing technology is classified, summarized and commented from the four aspects of on orbit 3D printing, on orbit welding, on orbit strip based plastic forming, and on orbit in situ manufacturing. A series of bottleneck problems encountered in the current development process are pointed out, and the future development trends are predicted. Combining with the successful experiences of foreign on orbit manufacturing technology, this article finally gives out the areas that need to be paid attention and the direction of efforts in the development of China’s on orbit manufacturing technology. It is expected to provide a useful reference for the layout of China’s space on orbit manufacturing technology.

In order to solve the problem of high maneuverability and difficult trajectory prediction of hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), an intelligent trajectory prediction method of HGV based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition and attention long short term memory network is proposed by selecting the aerodynamic acceleration as the prediction parameter. Firstly, the maneuvering characteristics and the aerodynamic variation law of HGV are analyzed based on the six degree of freedom motion equation. The dynamic tracking model is established to estimate the aerodynamic acceleration in real time. Secondly, the estimated aerodynamic acceleration is decomposed and reconstructed by using ensemble empirical mode decomposition to weaken the influence of noise and avoid interference to the prediction model. Finally, the denoised aerodynamic acceleration data used to train the attention long short term memory network. Then the future aerodynamic acceleration data predicted and the future trajectory of HGV is reconstructed to achieve online trajectory prediction. The simulation results show that the method can effectively predict the maneuver trajectory of HGV with high prediction accuracy and good stability.

The new generation launch vehicles are encountered with the strong coupling problem between the structural dynamics and the control system, which would influence the flight stability. To address this challenge, a modeling and simulation approach based on the Multibody dynamic virtual prototype is presented so as to solve the verifying difficulty of the attitude dynamic model through ground tests. In this paper, the basic idea of applying the multibody virtual prototype in the attitude dynamics analysis of a launch vehicle is described firstly; then the difference between the multibody dynamics model and the traditional rocket attitude dynamics model is analyzed, and the significance of introducing the multibody simulation technology is pointed out; and finally, aiming at the new generation launch vehicles, a multibody virtual prototype modeling method is proposed and implemented, and the correctness of the new generation launch vehicles’ attitude dynamics model as well as the control parameters is simulated and tested. The research of this paper shows that the multibody dynamic virtual prototype simulation is an effective method to solve the complex dynamic coupling problems in space vehicle system design.

Aiming at the problem of improving the flight reliability of the space transportation system based on the reliability limit of products, a technical approach of breaking through the application of intelligent flight technology to support the higher-quality development of space transportation system is proposed. The four stages of intelligent flight technology development across the world are summarized, and the development gap of the technology is analyzed. Based on this, the intelligent flight technology development framework of China’s space transportation system is formulated, a functional layer composed of “perception and monitoring”,“evaluation and decision” and “implementation and disposal” is constructed, and corresponding key technologies are defined. The influence of the intelligent flight technology on the overall design criteria and process of the top layer is analyzed. Finally, the development of China’s intelligent flight technology is prospected.

Focusing on cutting-edge scientific issues related to lunar exploration and applications, 9 overarching goals and 38 specific objectives for manned lunar exploration program have been proposed, leveraging China’s technical capabilities in manned spaceflight and lunar exploration, as well as its expertise in lunar and planetary science, the objectives center on scientific research, lunar-based scientific research, and resource exploration and utilization. Based on these scientific goals and trends in domestic and international manned lunar exploration landing site selection, basic principles and processes for selecting landing sites have been established. Thirty prime landing sites have been identified, and relevant factors considered in the further selection of landing sites are given, taking into account scientific value and engineering implementation conditions. These scientific objectives and landing site selection recommendations will serve as important guidance and top-level input for the design and implementation of manned lunar exploration program.

Firstly this paper introduces the development history and current situation of foreign aerospace vehicle technology. According to the world development experiences and the aerospace vehicle’s flight features, we raise the basic science problems of aerospace vehicle technology, and propose the solutions of aerospace vehicle technology based on current technological level. In conclusion, the development direction of aerospace vehicle technology is elucidated. It is generally known that the long term future of mankind must be in outer space. Developing a new generation of space transportation system is not only the requirement of large scale exploitation and utilization of outer space, but also will open up a new era of outer space. 

Aiming at the difficulties of a class of hypersonic flight vehicle (HFV) involving variable configurations, the engineering application requirements are analyzed, and the research progress of several typical nonlinear control methods is summarized. Firstly, the sources and characteristics of several common research models of hypersonic flight vehicle are summarized. Secondly, based on the actual engineering requirements, the control difficulties and needs for the control system capability of such vehicle are analyzed. Furthermore, the current status of several typical nonlinear control methods and intelligent control methods for hypersonic flight vehicle are summarized, and the frameworks of various control schemes are given. Finally, some problems and directions for further research are discussed for the HFV control with diversified mission forms and complicated environment in the future.

The development of four kinds of parabolic antenna structures is presented, including radial rib antenna structure, wrapped rib antenna structure, truss antenna structure and hoop antenna structure. A detailed comparison of these four structures is presented. Additionally, for the planar antenna structures, the features of wing antenna structures, truss antenna structures and membrane antenna structures are summarized. Finally, future trends of large, high packing factor and high surface accuracy are pointed out. And the technical difficulties which should be overcome before space applications of larger and higher precision SAR antennas are proposed.

Aiming at the problems of iterative design inefficiency, performance limitation and the design redundancy that are caused by the independent traditional satellite overall design of control process, an integrated optimization design method of satellite overall system and the attitude control is proposed. Based on the traditional satellite multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) model considering the orbit, structure, power and propulsion subsystems, the satellite attitude control simulation in the application mission is incorporated into the satellite multidisciplinary analysis process in order to implement an accurate analysis of coupling effects between satellite overall design and attitude control, and perform a comprehensive evaluation on the complete mission pay-back. In this way, the integrated optimization of the satellite overall system and control process can be accomplished. Finally, by taking one agile Earth observing satellite for application research, it is demonstrated the attitude control process has a great influence on the final satellite overall design solution. Besides, the integrated optimization method generates better overall design solution with better design performance and less design redundancy than the traditional MDO method, which verifies the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed integrated optimization design method.

Mission planning of interplanetary multi objective flyby is carried out for solar system boundary exploration, and the optimization of low thrust interplanetary transfer orbit combined with planet gravity assistance is completed. Based on the above research, the interplanetary flight schemes for the exploration of the tip and tail of the heliosphere are given. The results show that a probe launched during 2024-2025 and 2027-2030 can arrive at about 100 AU from the solar center before 2049, and touch the nasal tip and tail of the heliosphere. Among them, the tip explorer is located in the central region of the nose tip when it flies to the distance of 100 AU, which can effectively complement the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The mission planning method used in this paper can provide the basis for the autonomous mission planning technology of solar system boundary exploration, and the relevant research results can provide valuable reference for the implementation of the first solar system boundary exploration mission in China in the future.

In view of the major constraints of high costs of round-trip transportation in the large-scale space application of the space station and the the manned deep space exploration program, during the development of China’s next generation of manned spacecraft, in order to reduce operating costs and improve economic benefits, relevant designs are carried out according to the reusability. The reusable modes of China’s next-generation manned spacecraft are proposed, the technical difficulties of reusable spacecraft are analyzed, and the technical approaches to solve the problems are given from four dimensions: reusable condition design, product reusable performance design, reusable maintenance support design and autonomous health detection and diagnosis design. Thus formed a architecture for reusable technologies of the next-generation manned spacecraft. This study defines the reusable technology roadmap and realization direction of the next-generation manned spacecraft, which can be used to guide the development of future reusable spacecraft and lay the foundation for large-scale space development.

Aiming at the problem of intercepting endo atmospheric high speed maneuvering targets, a deep reinforcement learning guidance law is proposed based on the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient(TD3) algorithm. It directly maps the engagement information to the commanded acceleration of the interceptor, which is an end to-end, model free guidance strategy. Firstly, the engagement kinematic model of both sides is described as a Markov decision process suitable for deep reinforcement learning algorithms. After that, a complete deep reinforcement learning guidance algorithm is constructed by reasonably designing the engagement scenarios, action space, state space and network structure required for algorithm training. The reward shaping and random initialization are introduced to construct a complete algorithm. The simulation results show that, compared with the proportional guidance and augmented proportional guidance laws, the proposed guidance strategy can reduce the requirement for mid course guidance while having smaller miss distances. It has good robustness and generalization ability, with less computational burden that makes it eligible to run on missile borne computers.

This paper proposes an integrated guidance and control algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning technique. Differently from the traditional integrated guidance and control algorithm and designing the guidance loop and control loop separately, the fin deflection command of proposed integrated guidance and control algorithm is given by the agent through the observation states of missile. The agent is generated by the deep reinforcement learning. To utilize the deep reinforcement learning technique in integrated guidance and control problem, we transfer the integrated guidance and control problem into a Markovian decision process that enables the application of reinforcement learning theory. A heuristic way is utilized to shape a proper reward function that has tradeoff between guidance accuracy, energy consumption and interception time. The state of the art deep deterministic policy gradient algorithm is utilized to learn an action policy that maps the observation states to a fin deflection command. Extensive empirical numerical simulations are performed to validate the effectiveness and robustness of proposed integrated guidance and control algorithm.

The low cost INS/GNSS integrated navigation system is susceptible and has a larger heading error in complex environment. For solving these problems, a dual antenna GPS/MEMS INS deeply integrated navigation approach is studied. Considering the tracking characteristics of signals with different intensities, three tracking structures are designed for strong signal, weak signal and loss of lock status based on vector delay locked loop (VDLL), second order phase locked loop (PLL) and velocity aided first order PLL respectively. A practical method of estimating signal intensity is presented to prevent channels with large error from participating in the calculation of navigation filter, and the navigation accuracy is improved. In order to ensure the heading accuracy, two antennas are used. The carrier phase difference of the two antennas is added into the measurement of the navigation filter. A phase difference measurement equation in which the pitch information is isolated is constructed by using the line of sight vector horizontal projection transformation. Vehicular navigation test shows that the designed navigation system can provide continuous and high precision navigation output in urban environment.

This paper analyzes and summarizes the research status of autonomous observation technology, autonomous decision making technology and control technology involved in intelligent autonomous control systems, and also analyzes the current technical problems of spacecraft control systems in dealing with uncertain environments. Considering the needs of future space missions, a new closed loop structure of “Observation evolution decision action” (OEDA) is proposed for spacecraft, and the characteristics and functions are discussed. The theories and methods involved in observation, evolution, decision making and control action in the OEDA control framework are further given. Finally, the key scientific problems that need to be solved in the practical applications and further development of the control framework are analyzed.