Analysis of rover transmission interruption influenced by lander in Chang´e-3 task

After Chang´e-3 (CE-3) spacecraft lands on the Moon,the lander and the rover will depart. During the departure, the rover may be sheltered by the lander, which may break the rover´s TT&C transmission. Such interruption is influenced by the relative position between the Earth and the Moon, the outline of the lander and of the rover, the antenna location of the rover, and the landing attitude of the lander. In the paper, we analyze the situations where the lander blocks the rover under different landing attitudes, and ensure that the interruption will happen in a certain range between the lander and the rover both in theory and by simulation. Based on the conclusion, the landing attitude is optimized, and some technology suggestions are presented to CE-3 task.