Optimization method for mission analysis of aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicles

This paper is about an optimization method which has been developed to deal with trajectory optimization and mission analysis of an aeroassisted orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), in the context of preliminary design studies. Although this kind of trajectory can already be computed with existing trajectory optimization tools, we need a faster and robust tool which can be integrated as a “black box” in a multidisciplinary design process, in order to study rapidly many different OTV concepts and missions. In this context, our objective is not to get a very precise “optimal trajectory”, as existing “heavy” optimization tools do, but a solution precise enough to give a good insight of the performance (namely, the apogee altitude variation) and the mechanical and thermal loads. Incidentally, the solution obtained may also be used as an initial guess for a more precise trajectory optimization tool. To achieve this goal, we have studied parametric formulations of the control law, with optimization of the switching times. This development has been done considering a low lift-to-drag ratio vehicle (controlled only with the bank angle), like the aerocapture-designed version of the Mars Sample Return Orbiter. The cost function to be minimized is the heat flux, which is a key parameter for the multidisciplinary design of this kind of vehicle. The parametric formulation eventually chosen yields a good level of precision and robustness. Also, the study has been pushed further with the optimization of some mission parameters in the same process, in order to get directly preliminary answers to some trade-off issues in the mission analysis, like the choice of the initial perigee altitude.