DERIVATION OF THE GUIDANCE EQUATIONS FOR THE USAF ATHENA

Abstract

The USAF ATHENA is a re-entry test vehicle which has four solid propellant stages. A midcourse correction type of guidance is used to compensate for boost dispersions by adjusting the third stage attitude and ignition time. The guidance computations are performed in a ground based digital computer using radar data obtained after second stage burnout. Because this is a re-entry test vehicle, the guidance system must cause the payload to meet various re-entry constraints as well as the usual impact point constraint. The complete derivation of the guidance equations and a description of the entire guidance loop are presented in this report.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 30, 1964
Accession Number
AD0437525

Entities

People

  • B. Katz
  • L. K. Herman
  • R. M. Allman

Organizations

  • The Aerospace Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Attitude Control Systems
  • Computational Science
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Coordinate Systems
  • Digital Computers
  • Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Ground Based
  • Ignition
  • Impact Point
  • Posture (Physiology)
  • Propellants
  • Solid Propellants
  • United States
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerial Unmanned Vehicle Swarm Micro Periodontal Dentistry.
  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Space Exploration and Orbital Mechanics.