An Explicit Guidance Scheme For A Low-Thrust Terminal Rendezvous

Shankar, GS and Seetharama Bhat, M (1996) An Explicit Guidance Scheme For A Low-Thrust Terminal Rendezvous. In: Acta Astronautica, 38 (09). pp. 733-743.

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Abstract

An explicit near-optimal guidance scheme is developed for a terminal rendezvous of a spacecraft with a passive target in circular orbit around the earth. The thrust angle versus time profile for the continuous-thrust, constant-acceleration maneuver is derived, based on the assumption that the components of inertial acceleration due to relative position and velocity are negligible on account of the close proximity between the two spacecraft. The control law is obtained as a ''bilinear tangent law'' and an analytic solution to the state differential equations is obtained by expanding a portion of the integrand as an infinite series in time. A differential corrector method is proposed, to obtain real-time updates to the guidance parameters at regular time intervals. Simulation of the guidance scheme is carried out using the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations of relative motion as well as the inverse-square two-body equations of motion. Results for typical examples are presented.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Acta Astronautica
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Elsevier Science.
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Aerospace Engineering(Formerly Aeronautical Engineering)
Date Deposited:	19 Jul 2009 05:59
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:27
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/19302

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