Study on optimal Trajectories and Energy Management Capabilities of a Winged Re-Entry Vehicle during the Terminal Area

Study on optimal Trajectories and Energy Management Capabilities of a Winged Re-Entry Vehicle during the Terminal Area

De Ridder, S.

Mooij, E. (mentor)

Aerospace Engineering

Earth Observation and Space Systems

2009-07-06

The unpowered entry of a winged re-entry vehicle, such as the HORUS-2B, consists of a hypersonic atmospheric re-entry phase, a Terminal Area Energy Management (TAEM) phase and a approach and landing phase. The TAEM is the subject of this thesis study. During the TAEM, the vehicle is brought to the correct interface position with the landing phase, on the extension of the centerline of the runway with the correct amount of energy and the correct heading. The most characteristic feature of the TAEM phase is the so-called Heading Alignment Cylinder (HAC). The vehicle performs a turn around the HAC to align with the runway. During actual re-entry flights, flight conditions at the beginning of the terminal area will not always be nominal and several variations in entry position, energy, heading angle and flight-path angle can occur. Therefore, the main question of this thesis work is formulated as: Can the safe return of a winged re-entry vehicle through the terminal area be guaranteed for a wide range of initial conditions?

TAEM
genetic algorithm
Energy management
winged re-entry vehicle
optimal trajectories

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5e801af7-b006-478d-8b13-3f6f55ecff6a

2009-10-01

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2009 De Ridder, S.