Orbital Insertion Control of a Three-stage Solid Rocket Booster Modeled in Six degrees-of-freedom

Abstract

How to model the orbital insertion of a payload in a high fidelity simulation is summarized in this paper. Though executed frequently in real time, actual flight software is inaccessible to a broader audience, and too complex for analytical studies. For exploratory trade studies of a three-stage solid rocket booster, the ascent guidance law is derived from first principles and embedded in an open-source six degrees-of-freedom simulation. This simulation, known by the acronym ROCKET6, is based on the C++ simulation framework CADAC++. It models, at high fidelity, aerodynamics, propulsion, autopilot, guidance, INS, GPS and star-tracker, while introducing real world atmospheric effects like wind and turbulence. The ascent of a typical booster from Vandenberg AFB, CA, is presented as test case and the results of 100 Monte Carlo runs are documented. The stochastic post-run analysis shows accurate insertion performance.