CEAS EuroGNC 2019
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A Reusable Launcher Benchmark with Advanced Recovery Guidance
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| P. Simplício |
Technology for Aerospace Control, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK | | A. Marcos |
Technology for Aerospace Control, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK | | S. Bennani |
ESA ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract:
The current interest on launcher reusability has led to several mission optimisation studies aiming to maximise payload while meeting tight aerothermal constraints. However, in this article it is shown that further benefits can be achieved by jointly addressing the tasks of vehicle dimensioning and guidance and control design. To enable this approach, a thorough understanding of reusable flight mechanics and of its fundamental guidance and control interactions is necessary. This can only be accomplished by using a benchmark specifically accounting for these couplings. This article presents such a benchmark, which is capable of simulating the launch and recovery of a vertical take-off and landing booster used as a first stage of a lightweight, non-winged vehicle, steered via thrust vector control, fins and cold gas thrusters. In addition, and based on the joint dimensioning/design assessmentand developed benchmark, a guidance algorithm for retro-propulsive entry, descent and pinpoint landing based on successive convex optimisation is proposed. Comparable algorithms exist in the literature, but they tend to focus on maximising either computational efficiency (typically disregarding aerodynamic deceleration) or trajectory optimality (employing multiple convex approximations). Moreover, they are targeted to low-altitude and low-velocity flight, which is not representative of launchers. The proposed algorithm intends to provide a middle ground between efficiency and optimality that is specifically tailored to the extended flight envelope encountered by reusable launchers, and is therefore termed DESCENDO (Descending over Extended Envelopes using Successive Convexification-based Optimisation). Its effectiveness is verified in a closed-loop fashion using complete recovery scenarios included in the reusable launcher benchmark.
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| Keywords: Optimization; Reusable vehicles |
 View PDF CEAS-GNC-2019-013 |
| P. Simplício, A. Marcos, S. Bennani: A Reusable Launcher Benchmark with Advanced Recovery Guidance. Proceedings of the 2019 CEAS EuroGNC conference. Milan, Italy. April 2019. CEAS-GNC-2019-013.
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| BibTeX entry:
@Incollection{CEAS-GNC-2019-013,
authors = {Simplício, P. and Marcos, A. and Bennani, S.},
title = {A Reusable Launcher Benchmark with Advanced Recovery Guidance},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2019 {CEAS EuroGNC} conference},
address = {Milan, Italy},
month = apr,
year = {2019},
note = {CEAS-GNC-2019-013}
}
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