The Restoration of Input Parameters of an Exterior Ballistic Solution by the Results of Body Movement Trajectory Measurement

Abstract

Analyzing the results of ballistic experiments often brings up the problem of restoring the input computation parameters of the exterior ballistics of a body (the ballistic coefficient, the initial velocity, the environment temperature, the pressure, etc.) by the results of trajectory measurements (the reverse problem of exterior ballistics). It is found that without a priori information on unknown parameters, the problem in question cannot have a unique solution. We propose a procedure of solving the reverse problem with a priori information at hand; this procedure rests on the least-squares method and the maximum-likelihood method. An algorithm for solving the reverse problem is described in detail (the described algorithm implements the proposed procedure). We consider applying this procedure to the problem of restoring the initial departure conditions and atmospheric parameters, as well as to the problem of simultaneously determining the initial velocity of the body and its ballistic coefficient.