Accession Number:

AD0272559

Title:

A COMPUTATIONAL PROCEDURE FOR OPTIMIZING INTERPLANETARY TRAJECTORIES

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

RAND CORP SANTA MONICA CALIF

Personal Author(s):

• HO,Y.C.

Report Date:

1962-02-01

Pagination or Media Count:

1.0

Abstract:

An analysis that describes a computational procedure for optimizing dynamical system trajectories by a method of successive approximations is presented. The procedure may be applied to a large class of control problems which are described by nonlinear differential equations. The performance criterion minimized by the process is the weighted sum of the squares of the terminal errors in the system state variables, subject to certain constraints on the control variables. The method is applied to the optimization of a low-thrust trajectory from earth to Mars. Author

Descriptors:

• *CONTROL SYSTEMS
• *EARTH(PLANET)
• *MARS(PLANET)
• *NONLINEAR DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
• *SPACECRAFT
• FLIGHT PATHS
• INEQUALITIES
• INTEGRAL EQUATIONS
• MATRICES(MATHEMATICS)
• PROPULSION SYSTEMS
• THRUST
• TRANSFORMATIONS(MATHEMATICS)
• VECTOR ANALYSIS

Subject Categories:

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE