The ability to control the location of a spacecraft atmospheric interface reentry has been traditionally accomplished using propulsion. A novel technique is presented here where a predefined point of atmospheric interface reentry is achieved by adjusting the aerodynamic drag of a spacecraft in a circular orbit. If this method is employed at a sufficiently high starting altitude, any ground-track point accessible by the orbit can be targeted. This method can be broken up into two different parts. The first consists of finding the decay profile that achieves the desired reentry location. The second consists of keeping the spacecraft within this nominal decay trajectory, given the atmospheric uncertainty and other perturbations. The two parts of this method are presented here in detail. Finally, a case study is provided to demonstrate how this method could work in a realistic scenario and to evaluate its performance. The case study shows that a reentry point can be targeted with a 3σ error of less than 200 km, using a typical Global Positioning System for navigation. Finally, a discussion of potential applications is provided.


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    Title :

    Atmospheric Interface Reentry Point Targeting Using Aerodynamic Drag Control




    Publication date :

    2015




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    BKL:    55.54 Flugführung
    Local classification TIB:    770/7040



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