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