Advanced Problems and Methods for Space Flight Optimization

Advanced Problems and Methods for Space Flight Optimization presents the optimization theory and its application to space flight. This book covers a wide range of topics, including optimal guidance, general mathematical methods of optimization, optimal transfer trajectories, and optimization of design parameters. Organized into 15 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the approximate analytic solution developed for minimum fuel guidance from an arbitrary point on a hyperbolic orbit into a definite circular orbit. This text then determines the maximum range trajectory for a glider entering the Earth's atmosphere at a supercircular velocity. Other chapters consider the economical transfers between Keplerian orbits, which has made considerable progress in the time-free case. This book discusses as well the Pontryagin Maximum Principle used to determine the optimal transfers between arbitrary coaxial ellipses. The final chapter deals with the synthesis of minimum-fuel controls for a class of aerospace control problems. This book is a valuable resource for aerospace engineers.