Mars Precision Landing Guidance Strategy based on Fuel Optimal Solutions

Abstract

In order to satisfy real time and low fuel consumption requirements of Mars descent phrase, a new Mars precision landing guidance strategy was proposed based on fuel optimal solutions. Based on the characteristic analysis of the open loop fuel optimal solutions, states corresponding to thruster force magnitude switching time are directly selected as intermediate waypoints, and then a linear guidance algorithm was implemented in each segments to achieve fuel optimal performance. Several key problems, including the computation of global fuel optimal solution, waypoint selection, waypoint fitting, and derivation of linear guidance algorithm, were discussed in details, and the feasibility and superiority of the proposed strategy have been evaluated through a variety of typical Mars landing scenarios.

Keywords

precision landing / dynamic descent / waypoint / optimal guidance / trajectory tracking