OPTIMAL ORBITAL MANEUVERS (TWO-DAY SHORT COURSE)
DR. JOHN E. PRUSSING
AIAA PROFESSIONAL STUDIES SERIES
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
This course is designed for engineers, physicists, applied mathematicians,
educators, and others whose professional interests
include astrodynamics, guidance navigation and control,
and propulsion.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of this course is to provide to those in
industry, government, and academia a unified treatment of
modern techniques for the determination of optimal orbital
maneuvers, including rendezvous, interception, and orbit transfer.
PROGRAM
SATURDAY
7:30-8:30 a.m.
Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30-10:15 a.m.
Basic Concepts in Orbital Maneuvers: Equations of Motion
The Rocket Equation and its Solutions
10:15-10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30-12:00 noon
High Thrust and Low Thrust Engines: Impulsive Approximation
Basic Concepts in Optimal Control Theory
Minimum-Fuel Cost Functionals for High and Low Thrust Problems
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Luncheon
1:30-3:00 p.m.
Terminal Constraints for Different Types of Maneuvers
Necessary Conditions for Time-Fixed and Time-Open Optimal Solutions
Example Problems
3:00-3:15 p.m.
Break
3:15-5:00 p.m.
The Definition of the Primer Vector
Necessary Conditions for Optimality in Terms of the Primer Vector
The State Transition Matrix for an Inverse-Square Gravity Field
SUNDAY
8:00-8:30 a.m.
Continental Breakfast
8:30-10:15 a.m.
Impulsive Thrust Problems
Hohmann Transfer for Orbit Transfer and Rendezvous
10:15-10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30-12:00 noon
Optimal Initial and Final Coasts
When to Add a Midcourse Impulse
Iteration to Converge to Optimal Solution
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Luncheon
1:30-3:00 p.m.
Recent Results
Linearized Orbit Equations
The Clohessy-Wiltshire (CW) Model
3:00-3:15 p.m.
Break
3:15-5:00 p.m.
Necessary Conditions for an Optimal Solution
Optimal Impulsive and Low Thrust Solutions
Concluding Remarks