Robust Near-Optimal Aerocapture Guidance Method Based on Saturation Function

Abstract

Aerocapture maneuvers refer to a single atmospheric crossing to deplete orbital energy and establish a closed orbit. During the atmospheric flight, adjusting the spacecraft’s vertical lift component in an optimal manner, bang-bang bank control, will minimize the propulsion fuel consumption required to establish the target orbit. However, such methods have been suffering from the performance’s oversensitivity to the control’s instantaneous switching time and poor robustness. To address these problems, we propose a new numerical predictor-corrector guidance algorithm based on the saturation function profile in this paper. The saturation function is used to basically simulate the bang-bang control structure, which enhances the algorithm’s robustness by reducing its dependence on the relevant parameters without losing too much optimality. Monte Carlo simulations in both Earth and Mars scenarios demonstrate the robustness, accuracy, and near-optimal performance of the proposed guidance method.