Optimal Guidance using Density-Proportional Flightpath Angle Profile for Precision Landing on Mars

This paper addresses the most significant sources of landing dispersion for an autonomously guided vehicle during its atmospheric entry on Mars. Trajectory guidance strategies are to be developed in order to achieve desired terminal altitude, velocity and downrange. Recent advances in the literature showed an analytical predictor-corrector guidance solution using one or two constant flightpath angle segments. However, these algorithms demonstrate some robustness limitations from the inherent vehicle aerodynamic controllability. Therefore, a novel guidance scheme using a density-proportional flightpath angle trajectory profile is proposed in order to improve the guidance performance. Finally, the performance of the algorithm is demonstrated on atmospheric entry simulations.

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