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System Analysis of a Numerical Predictor-Corrector Aerocapture Guidance Architecture

<p>Aerocapture has been envisioned as a potential orbit
insertion technique for planetary destinations with an atmosphere. Despite not
being flight proven technique, many studies found in the literature and recent
mission proposals have employed aerocapture into their respective mission
designs. The potential varying levels of trajectory dispersions experienced during
atmospheric flight at each destination drives the need for robust and
fuel-efficient guidance and control solutions. Existing guidance algorithms
have relied on tracking precomputed reference trajectories, which are computed
using significant simplifications to the flight mechanics, are not generally
designed to be fuel-efficient, and require tedious performance gain tuning.
When simulated with higher levels of uncertainty, the existing algorithms have
been shown to produce large orbit insertion errors. Furthermore, existing
flight control methodologies have been limited in scope to bank angle
modulation. While some studies have introduced new methodologies, such as drag
modulation and direct force control, they haven’t been tested at the same level
of rigor as the existing methods. Advances in on-board computational power are
allowing for modern guidance and control solutions, in the form of numerical
predictor-corrector algorithms, to be realized. This dissertation presents an
aerocapture guidance architecture based on a numerical predictor-corrector
algorithm. Optimal control theory is utilized to formulate and numerically
obtain fuel-minimizing flight control laws for lifting and ballistic vehicles.
The unified control laws are integrated into a common guidance algorithm. The
architecture is utilized to conduct Monte Carlo simulation studies of
Discovery-class and SmallSat-class aerocapture missions at various planetary
destinations.</p>

  1. 10.25394/pgs.14403542.v1
Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/14403542
Date07 May 2021
CreatorsRohan Gajanan Deshmukh (10587056)
Source SetsPurdue University
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis
RightsCC BY 4.0
Relationhttps://figshare.com/articles/thesis/System_Analysis_of_a_Numerical_Predictor-Corrector_Aerocapture_Guidance_Architecture/14403542

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