A COMPUTATIONAL PROCEDURE FOR OPTIMIZING INTERPLANETARY TRAJECTORIES

Abstract

An analysis that describes a computational procedure for optimizing dynamical system trajectories by a method of successive approximations is presented. The procedure may be applied to a large class of control problems which are described by nonlinear differential equations. The performance criterion minimized by the process is the weighted sum of the squares of the terminal errors in the system state variables, subject to certain constraints on the control variables. The method is applied to the optimization of a low-thrust trajectory from earth to Mars. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1962
Accession Number
AD0272559

Entities

People

  • Y.c. Ho

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Differential Equations
  • Equations
  • Interplanetary Trajectories
  • Linear Differential Equations
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Mathematics
  • Nonlinear Differential Equations
  • Optimization
  • Trajectories

Fields of Study

  • Mathematics
  • Physics

Readers

  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.
  • Statistical inference.