Range Improvements in Gliding Reentry Vehicles from Thrust Capability

Moshman, Nathan; Proulx, Ronald J.

doi:10.2514/1.a32764

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Thus, the past two decades have seen a wide array of research into constrained entry trajectory optimization and guidance for high-speed glide vehicles (for instance, Refs. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]). The introduction of Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid Ascent-Entry Vehicle Mission Optimization Using hp-Adaptive Gaussian Quadrature Collocation

Miller

Rao

2017

AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference

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The performance optimization for a combined ascent-entry mission subject to constraints on heating rate and heating load is studied. The ascent vehicle is modeled as a three-stage rocket that places the vehicle onto a suborbital exo-atmopheric trajectory after which the vehicle undergoes an unpowered entry and descent to a vertically downward terminal condition. The entry vehicle is modeled as a high lift-to-drag ratio vehicle that is capable of withstanding high levels of thermal and structural loads. A performance index is designed to improve control margin while attenuating phugoid oscillations during atmospheric entry. Furthermore, a mission corresponding to a prototype launch and target point is used in this study. The trajectory optimization problem is formulated as a multiple-phase optimal control problem, and the optimal control problem is solved using an adaptive Gaussian quadrature collocation method. A key aspect of the optimized trajectories is that, for particular ranges of maximum allowable heating rate and heating load during entry, relatively small adjustments made during ascent can potentially decrease the control effort required during atmospheric entry. Outside of these ranges for maximum allowable heating rate and heating load, however, it is found that the required control effort increases and eventually saturates the commanded angle of attack upon initial descent. The key features of the optimized trajectories and controls are identified, and the approach developed in this paper provides a systematic method for end-to-end ascent-entry trajectory optimization.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid Ascent-Entry Vehicle Mission Optimization Using hp-Adaptive Gaussian Quadrature Collocation

Miller

Rao

2017

AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference

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show abstract

“…The pseudospectral method has been proven to be extremely effective for simulations in aerospace applications and has been proven in flight applications such as the zero propellant manoeuvre of the International Space Station in 2007, where the ISS was rotated 180 degrees without any propellant used following a pseudospectral method solution [110]. The pseudospectral method has been used successfully in a multitude of studies for the trajectory analysis of hypersonic vehicles [84,85,87,[111][112][113][114][115][116][117], and has proved an extremely effective tool for solving the highly nonlinear trajectory optimisation problems that arise from complex aerodynamics. These successful use cases indicate that the pseudospectral method is robust for complex, nonlinear systems, and that the pseudospectral method can be used to solve problems with many state variables and phases, such as is required by the aero-3.5.…”

Section: The Pseudospectral Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to investigating the trajectories of airbreathing launch vehicles, the maximum-range, minimum-fuel trajectories of hypersonic vehicles and lifting bodies that are not necessarily launch vehicles can also allow a better understanding of the maximum efficiency return trajectory shape. The maximum range trajectory of a hypersonic vehicle operating at high altitudes is often a 'skipping' trajectory, where the altitude of the vehicle is repeatedly raised and lowered to take advantage of the most efficient angle of attack of a vehicle while travelling through high density air [84][85][86][87][88]. A skipping trajectory has been shown to be range optimal for hypersonic gliding vehicles when range is desired to be maximised, from a wide range of release points and vehicle configurations [72, 84-86, 88, 89].…”

Section: Hypersonic Vehicle Return and Glide Trajectoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%