EVALUATION OF OPTIMAL-GUIDANCE ALGORITHM FOR AEROASSISTED ORBIT TRANSFER

In this paper we perform an evaluation of a guidance algorithm for aeroassisted orbit transfer based on the method of matched asymptotic expansions (MAEs). It is shown that, by exploiting the structure of the matched asymptotic expansion solution procedure, the original problem, which requires the solution of a set of 20 implicit algebraic equations, can be reduced to a problem of 6 implicit equations in 6 unknowns. Guidance law implementation entails treating the current state as a new initial state and repetitively solving the MAE problem to obtain the feedback controls.