A direct solution approach for surface erosion in particle-laden hypersonic flows is extended for use in low-cost two-way coupled solutions of dilute gas-particle flows. The trajectory control volume method, which uses a sparse set of probe particles to predict surface erosion distributions on general vehicles, is reformulated for the solution of source terms by mean trajectory subdivision and computing a flux differencing. The approach is verified successfully against a boundary-layer solution and shown to agree well with experimental measurements. A representative Mars entry case, with conditions and geometry based on the ExoMars Schiaparelli capsule, is solved with the approach to study the impact of two-way coupling on surface heating and erosion. Results indicate that, for realistic loading conditions, heating is largely unmodified compared to one-way coupled results at peak heating trajectory conditions, and no measureable difference is observed in the surface erosion rate. At exaggerated loading conditions high enough to observe coupling effects, the worst-case collisional heating can increase heating by up to 60%.

The first step of any active debris removal (ADR) mission is the selection of the target. The optimal choice is to find the most dangerous debris that can be removed considering the chaser spacecraft requirements and mission constraints. After creating a catalog of the current space population in low Earth orbit (LEO), the MIT Monte Carlo Orbital Capacity Assessment Tool (MOCAT-MC) is used to simulate and predict the future space environment and the interaction among the space population. A novel performance index to quantify the criticality of each debris and the risk that it presents to the space environment is proposed. The new risk index considers the proximity of the debris to highly populated regions, its persistence in orbit, its likelihood to collide, and the estimated number and mass of debris that it can generate. The risk index is then optimized to work either with the full space population or a subset of it, where the ranking of risk among debris is highlighted. Multiple risk analyses are proposed in the test cases, where the ranked list of optimal targets is provided.

In this paper, high-spatial-resolution unsteady pressure-sensitive paint (UPSP) data are utilized to compare two methods for panel buffet forcing function (BFF) estimation for the Space Launch System (SLS). Such methods are based on discrete pressure measurements within a panel but employ coherence factors to account for partially correlated fluctuating pressures across the whole panel. In one method, coherence factors are derived based on the Corcos model, whereas the second method utilizes experimentally derived coherence factors. To simulate discrete measurements using UPSP data, suitable subsets of the data are extracted. When full UPSP resolution is retained, UPSP data provide a benchmark to assess discrete-measurement-based methods. The analysis focuses on the peak SLS buffet environment located downstream of the forward attachment hardware (FAH) between the core stage and solid rocket boosters. Trends of the Corcos-based and experimentally derived coherence factors are in reasonable agreement with the benchmark. However, at certain frequencies, experimentally derived coherence factors are sensitive to the separation distance between pressure measurements utilized to compute coherence lengths. Such sensitivity originates from deviation of the experimentally based coherence function from an exponential decay assumption. On the other hand, the present implementation of the Corcos model fails to capture certain nonturbulent boundary-layer-related environments, such as a subharmonic of FAH vortex shedding. For all methods presented in this paper, at near-transonic conditions, increased pressure coherence and spatial nonuniformity lead to BFF overestimation and sensitivity to the pressure measurement location within the panel.

Interstellar space missions will require spacecraft that travel at relativistic speeds. Furthermore, their trajectories will be influenced by gravitational sources. Accordingly, this paper applies to interstellar missions a recently developed formulation of relativistic mechanics that predicts a spacecraft’s trajectory when it passes by a gravitational source at a relativistic speed. The formulation, called spacetime impetus, is unique in that it employs a relativistic universal law of gravitation that does not explicitly require general relativity while producing precisely the same results. Based on these developments, an analyst can now update nonrelativistic mission planning codes to give them general relativistic capabilities. It requires augmenting the code with relativistic velocities and relativistic accelerations, the replacement of the universal law of gravitation with a relativistic universal law of gravitation, and setting up Lorentz transformations between frames.

This paper proposes new concepts for the point-to-point rocket cargo transportation system (RCTS). The RCTS is a transportation system that can deliver cargo anywhere on Earth in an hour using reusable launch vehicle technologies. As a fundamental study of global transportation on Earth, we especially address the mission profiles for short-range transportation within hundreds of kilometers using small rocket engines, which are intended for logistics transportation within neighboring countries or domestic transportation in a country. Two mission profiles of the RCTS are introduced, and the flight phases of each concept are explained in detail. The trajectory optimization problem of the RCTS is formulated based on the mission profiles, incorporating the flight constraints, boundary conditions, and an objective function that aims to maximize the payload ratio. The explicit-guidance is employed during the landing burn phase to enhance the convergence of the optimization problem by expanding the feasible region. The coevolutionary augmented Lagrangian method, one of the evolutionary algorithms, is utilized to obtain the solution for the trajectory optimization problem. The optimal trajectory and state variables are presented through numerical simulations. Additionally, parametric studies are performed to determine the payload mass trend of the RCTS. The trajectory optimization results are summarized to provide an analysis and comparison of the proposed mission profiles.

On 15 May 2021, the Tianwen-1 mission delivered a lander and the Zhurong rover to the Mars surface, which made China the second nation to successfully land and place a rover on that planet. The guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system for the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) of the Tianwen-1 mission play keys role in guaranteeing a successful landing. In this paper, the Tianwen-1 EDL GNC system design is presented, including the GNC architecture, scheme, and algorithm; additionally, the system is validated through experimental tests, numerical simulations, and actual flight results from telemetry data.

Low-thrust electric propulsion system has drawn increasing attention from researchers because of its high propellant efficiency. The reachable domain of low-thrust spacecraft can provide a geometric insight for space mission planning. In this paper, analytical solutions of the envelope of reachable domain are obtained by employing the Pontryagin’s maximum principle in the well-known linearized model of relative motion, the Tschauner–Hempel equations. Specifically, this study focuses on two contributions. First, an analytical solution of the envelope of reachable domain is obtained, and the associated optimal control profile is derived. Second, an ellipsoid approximation of the reachable domain is proposed to represent the envelope directly based on the analytical solution. Numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed solutions. The results show that the reachable domain obtained analytically coincides well with that solved by the numerical indirect method based on the two-body model with low thrust.

The problem investigated in this paper is how to rapidly optimize a landing trajectory on an arbitrarily shaped asteroid, subject to practical constraints and a gravitational model suitable for irregular asteroids. The fundamental idea is to convert the nonlinearity involved in the gravitational field into an equivalent convex version and further generate the optimal trajectory using the two-step convex optimization technique to achieve efficient and robust computation. For a given mission area, the positional space is discretized as an exactly sufficient number of small tetrahedron meshes, within which the real gravitations are interpolated as the linear gravitational representation with nonconvex mesh tracking constraints. A solution space relaxation–penalization technique is proposed to convexify the mesh tracking constraints and keep the feasibility of the resulting convex optimization problem. A series of optimal active meshes are generated by solving this problem and transcribed as corresponding convex active meshing constraints, and further imposing them on the landing trajectory to construct the final convex optimization problem equaling to the original problem. The strength and correctness of this method are demonstrated from both perspectives of theoretical analyses and numerical simulations for landing on 4769 Castalia asteroid, with the comparisons of the state-of-the-art convex-optimization-based methods.

During atmospheric ascent, launch vehicles (LVs) experience large dynamic loads at transonic conditions where aerodynamic buffet is most critical. To estimate buffet loads, coupled loads analyses typically utilize suitable forcing functions, called buffet forcing functions (BFFs). One of the key buffet environment contributors is the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) acting on the LV outer skin. The cross-spectral density function of TBL-induced fluctuating pressures can be estimated using the widely accepted Corcos model. In the context of transonic buffet, the performance of this model is not well established, partly because of lack of data. To fill this gap, NASA recently acquired extremely high-spatial-density data for the Space Launch System vehicle using the unsteady-pressure-sensitive-paint (uPSP) optical measurement technique. A methodology is developed for extraction of the Corcos model parameters using these unique data, with a focus on the LV design application. The model hypotheses are verified, and the model parameters are empirically tuned. For selected panels on the vehicle, force coherence factors are derived based on the Corcos model, and the associated panel BFFs are compared to uPSP data. It is shown that the modeled BFFs are in agreement with direct integration of uPSP data, except for regions where pressure fluctuations are spatially nonuniform. In those regions, the Corcos-based BFFs exhibit inherent limitations of BFF estimation methods that rely on discrete pressure measurements. Lastly, extending the present implementation of the Corcos model to frequencies impacted by vortex-shedding phenomena can result in underconservative BFF estimates at the subharmonic of the vortex shedding.