Explicit guidance for aeroassisted orbital plane change

Abstract

This paper presents a explicit guidance for lift control of a aeroassisted orbital vehicle. The vehicle enters the atmosphere with a prescribed angle and keeps the bank angle being 90' until exits. The entry angle is the function of the entry speed and the exit speed. The lift control in the atmosphere can be divided into two phases. In the first phase the vehicle descends and keeps the normalized lift coefficient constant and slightly greater than one. During the ascending the normalized lift coefficient decreases proportionally t o the increasing of the dimensionless height. A comparison is made for the orbital plane change between the optimal aeroassisted trajectory and the application of explicit guidance for the lift control. In the case of the vehicle using the explicit lift control provides the same orbital plane change and a practical scheme for realization of the aeroassisted theory. The guidance scheme not only implementable but also simple. With the explicit guidance scheme the lifting vehicle can calculate the guidance command onborad and benefits from the aeroassisted theory.