This study formulates and solves a number of optimal control problems for a Mars entry vehicle in order to summarize the command profiles needed to meet different trajectory objectives. Optimal control problems are solved for both vehicles using bank-angle steering and alpha-beta steering during hypersonic flight, providing a flight performance comparison between these two steering schemes as well as a better understanding of alpha-beta steering. The optimal control problems considered are solved using direct-based pseudospectral methods and include the maximum altitude, minimum control effort, minimum error, minimum heat load, as well as the minimum peak heat rate, dynamic pressure, and aerodynamic load problems. While the flight performance of alpha-beta and bank-angle steering is similar, alpha-beta steering provides terminal altitudes between 0.5 and 2.6 km higher than bank-angle steering. Alpha-beta steering is also less sensitive to decreases in maximum vehicle rotational rates and consistently provides improved performance over sweeps of terminal longitude and in a weighted objective function of terminal altitude and peak heat rate. Results also show that bank-angle steering leads to values up to 4.4%, 3.3%, and 1.4% higher than alpha-beta steering for the heat load, peak heat rate, and peak dynamic pressure, respectively, indicating improved performance for alpha-beta steering.


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    Title :

    Optimal Control Comparison of Bank-Angle and Alpha-Beta Steering for Mars Entry Systems


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2025-01-01




    Type of media :

    Conference paper , Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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