Landing Guidance Control Combining Powered Descending with Nonlinear Optimization and Vertical Descending with Model Prediction

Abstract

In this study, we propose a landing guidance control method for the Moon using two control methods. The landing of a spacecraft on the Moon is divided into two phases: the powered descending phase and the vertical descending phase. The powered descending phase aims to optimize the entire trajectory to satisfy the termination constraint, instead of allowing for a relatively long control period. This phase performs feedback control using trajectory updates via nonlinear optimization. The vertical-descending phase aims to achieve accurate control over a short control period. This phase applies nonlinear model predictive control for fast optimization on finite time intervals. First, the landing of a spacecraft on the Moon is modeled as a two-body problem of the Moon and spacecraft, and equations of motion are derived. Subsequently, we formulated an optimization problem for each phase and developed the proposed landing guidance method by combining the two control methods. Furthermore, numerical simulations based on the derived equations of motion were performed to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method and to compare its performance with another optimization method, the successive convexification (SCvx) algorithm.