Abstract: A prototype of a small penetrator was designed to provide a high-speed impact structure for lunar exploration. The advantages of this penetrator structure are lightweight， high stiffness and good vibration damping performance， which makes the penetrator effectively impact a small celestial body. The method of combining theory， numerical analysis and simulation was used for the analysis of the impact response of small penetrator and the penetration process of normal incidence and oblique incidence， so as to explore the needs of impact protection in the field of deep space exploration. The results show that the as-designed penetrator can effectively guarantee the existence of the internal components， and that the acceleration response of internal instrument module is less than the input value， which proves the effect of vibration damping. Moreover， the structure can protect the internal instrument so that it can work normally after the impact.

Key words: penetrator, soil detection, impact response, penetration, numerical analysis