This book explores the design of optimal trajectories for space maneuver vehicles (SMVs) using optimal control-based techniques. It begins with a comprehensive introduction to and overview of three main approaches to trajectory optimization, and subsequently focuses on the design of a novel hybrid optimization strategy that combines an initial guess generator with an improved gradient-based inner optimizer. Further, it highlights the development of multi-objective spacecraft trajectory optimization problems, with a particular focus on multi-objective transcription methods and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. In its final sections, the book studies spacecraft flight scenarios with noise-perturbed dynamics and probabilistic constraints, and designs and validates new chance-constrained optimal control frameworks. The comprehensive and systematic treatment of practical issues in spacecraft trajectory optimization is one of the book’s major features, making it particularly suited for readers who are seeking practical solutions in spacecraft trajectory optimization. It offers a valuable asset for researchers, engineers, and graduate students in GNC systems, engineering optimization, applied optimal control theory, etc.

This is a long-overdue volume dedicated to space trajectory optimization. Interest in the subject has grown, as space missions of increasing levels of sophistication, complexity, and scientific return - hardly imaginable in the 1960s - have been designed and flown. Although the basic tools of optimization theory remain an accepted canon, there has been a revolution in the manner in which they are applied and in the development of numerical optimization. This volume purposely includes a variety of both analytical and numerical approaches to trajectory optimization. The choice of authors has been guided by the editor's intention to assemble the most expert and active researchers in the various specialities presented. The authors were given considerable freedom to choose their subjects, and although this may yield a somewhat eclectic volume, it also yields chapters written with palpable enthusiasm and relevance to contemporary problems.

Optimal Trajectories in Atmospheric Flight deals with the optimization of trajectories in atmospheric flight. The book begins with a simple treatment of functional optimization followed by a discussion of switching theory. It then presents the derivation of the general equations of motion along with the basic knowledge in aerodynamics and propulsion necessary for the analysis of atmospheric flight trajectories. It goes on to the study of optimal trajectories by providing the general properties of the optimal aerodynamic controls and the integrals of motion. This is followed by discussions of high subsonic and supersonic flight, and approximation techniques to reduce the order of the problem for a fast computation of the optimal trajectory. The final chapters present analyses of optimal reentry trajectories and orbital maneuvers. This book is intended as a reference text for scientists and engineers wanting to get into the subject of optimal trajectories in atmospheric flight. If used for teaching purposes, the book is written in a self-contained way so that a selective use of the material is at the discretion of the lecturer. The first 11 chapters are sufficient for a one-semester course with emphasis on optimal maneuvers of high performance aircraft.

Based on course-tested material, this rigorous yet accessible graduate textbook covers both fundamental and advanced optimization theory and algorithms. It covers a wide range of numerical methods and topics, including both gradient-based and gradient-free algorithms, multidisciplinary design optimization, and uncertainty, with instruction on how to determine which algorithm should be used for a given application. It also provides an overview of models and how to prepare them for use with numerical optimization, including derivative computation. Over 400 high-quality visualizations and numerous examples facilitate understanding of the theory, and practical tips address common issues encountered in practical engineering design optimization and how to address them. Numerous end-of-chapter homework problems, progressing in difficulty, help put knowledge into practice. Accompanied online by a solutions manual for instructors and source code for problems, this is ideal for a one- or two-semester graduate course on optimization in aerospace, civil, mechanical, electrical, and chemical engineering departments.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of the recent advances in the domain of optimal guidance, exploring the characteristics of various optimal guidance algorithms and their pros and cons. Optimal guidance is based on the concept of trajectory optimization, which minimizes the meaningful performance index while satisfying certain terminal constraints, and by properly designing the cost function the guidance command can serve as a desired pattern for a variety of mission objectives. The book allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of how optimal guidance law can be utilized to achieve different mission objectives for missiles and UAVs, and also explores the physical meaning and working principle of different new optimal guidance laws. In practice, this information is important in ensuring confidence in the performance and reliability of the guidance law when implementing it in a real-world system, especially in aerospace engineering where reliability is the first priority.

A mission to send humans to explore the surface of Mars has been the ultimate goal of planetary exploration since the 1950s, when von Braun conjectured a flotilla of 10 interplanetary vessels carrying a crew of at least 70 humans. Since then, more than 1,000 studies were carried out on human missions to Mars, but after 60 years of study, we remain in the early planning stages. The second edition of this book now includes an annotated history of Mars mission studies, with quantitative data wherever possible. Retained from the first edition, Donald Rapp looks at human missions to Mars from an engineering perspective. He divides the mission into a number of stages: Earth’s surface to low-Earth orbit (LEO); departing from LEO toward Mars; Mars orbit insertion and entry, descent and landing; ascent from Mars; trans-Earth injection from Mars orbit and Earth return. For each segment, he analyzes requirements for candidate technologies. In this connection, he discusses the status and potential of a wide range of elements critical to a human Mars mission, including life support consumables, radiation effects and shielding, microgravity effects, abort options and mission safety, possible habitats on the Martian surface and aero-assisted orbit entry decent and landing. For any human mission to the Red Planet the possible utilization of any resources indigenous to Mars would be of great value and such possibilities, the use of indigenous resources is discussed at length. He also discusses the relationship of lunar exploratio n to Mars exploration. Detailed appendices describe the availability of solar energy on the Moon and Mars, and the potential for utilizing indigenous water on Mars. The second edition provides extensive updating and additions to the first edition, including many new figures and tables, and more than 70 new references, as of 2015.

Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students, Second Edition, provides an introduction to the basic concepts of space mechanics. These include vector kinematics in three dimensions; Newton's laws of motion and gravitation; relative motion; the vector-based solution of the classical two-body problem; derivation of Kepler's equations; orbits in three dimensions; preliminary orbit determination; and orbital maneuvers. The book also covers relative motion and the two-impulse rendezvous problem; interplanetary mission design using patched conics; rigid-body dynamics used to characterize the attitude of a space vehicle; satellite attitude dynamics; and the characteristics and design of multi-stage launch vehicles. Each chapter begins with an outline of key concepts and concludes with problems that are based on the material covered. This text is written for undergraduates who are studying orbital mechanics for the first time and have completed courses in physics, dynamics, and mathematics, including differential equations and applied linear algebra. Graduate students, researchers, and experienced practitioners will also find useful review materials in the book. - NEW: Reorganized and improved discusions of coordinate systems, new discussion on perturbations and quarternions - NEW: Increased coverage of attitude dynamics, including new Matlab algorithms and examples in chapter 10 - New examples and homework problems

This book is devoted to the state-of-the-art in all aspects of fireworks algorithm (FWA), with particular emphasis on the efficient improved versions of FWA. It describes the most substantial theoretical analysis including basic principle and implementation of FWA and modeling and theoretical analysis of FWA. It covers exhaustively the key recent significant research into the improvements of FWA so far. In addition, the book describes a few advanced topics in the research of FWA, including multi-objective optimization (MOO), discrete FWA (DFWA) for combinatorial optimization, and GPU-based FWA for parallel implementation. In sequels, several successful applications of FWA on non-negative matrix factorization (NMF), text clustering, pattern recognition, and seismic inversion problem, and swarm robotics, are illustrated in details, which might shed new light on more real-world applications in future. Addressing a multidisciplinary topic, it will appeal to researchers and professionals in the areas of metahuristics, swarm intelligence, evolutionary computation, complex optimization solving, etc.

This book considers global solutions to the restricted three-body problem from a geometric point of view. The authors seek dynamical channels in the phase space which wind around the planets and moons and naturally connect them. These low energy passageways could slash the amount of fuel spacecraft need to explore and develop our solar system. In order to effectively exploit these passageways, the book addresses the global transport. It goes beyond the traditional scope of libration point mission design, developing tools for the design of trajectories which take full advantage of natural three or more body dynamics, thereby saving precious fuel and gaining flexibility in mission planning. This is the key for the development of some NASA mission trajectories, such as low energy libration point orbit missions (e.g., the sample return Genesis Discovery Mission), low energy lunar missions and low energy tours of outer planet moon systems, such as a mission to tour and explore in detail the icy moons of Jupiter. This book can serve as a valuable resource for graduate students and advanced undergraduates in applied mathematics and aerospace engineering, as well as a manual for practitioners who work on libration point and deep space missions in industry and at government laboratories. the authors include a wealth of background material, but also bring the reader up to a portion of the research frontier.