A Rapid Landing Footprint Calculation Method for Entry Vehicles

an improved method is developed for rapidly calculating landing footprint of entry vehicles. The proposed method is based on existing acceleration-based trajectory generation method. The landing footprint is constructed from the endpoints of a series of suboptimal trajectories which have extreme downrange or cross range. The advantage of the improved method include near real-time generation capability, respecting path constraints such as vehicle heating limits, accounting for coriolis effects, more accurate and smoother trajectories. The method is validated by a wave-rider vehicle, the simulation results indicates the calculated footprint using the improved algorithm is more accurate and flyable trajectories are smoother.