SIMULATION OF A LINEARISED OPTIMUM GUIDANCE LAW FOR SPACE VEHICLE INJECTION, WITH APPLICATION TO THE ELDO VEHICLE.

Abstract

An approximate guidance law for space vehicle injection guidance was studied by means of a digital simulation, using injection of the ELDO launcher into a 300 nm circular orbit as an example. The simulation was restricted to the third stage of flight and to two dimensions. The guidance law is based on continuous re-optimisation of the boost trajectory using measured values of vehicle state (position and velocity) as initial conditions. The approximation introduced corresponds to evaluating solutions which are considered as small departures from a pre-calculated 'reference' or 'nominal' trajectory. The results of the simulation lead to the conclusion that the approximate solution yields adequate guidance performance over a realistic range of vehicle perturbations. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0660616

Entities

People

  • Keith Smith
  • R. Clarke

Organizations

  • Royal Aircraft Establishment

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Circular Orbits
  • Guidance
  • Launchers
  • Optimization
  • Orbits
  • Perturbations
  • Simulations
  • Simulators
  • Spacecraft
  • Trajectories
  • Vehicles

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Missile Defense Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers