FLIGHT MECHANICS SUPPORT TO THE SELECTION OF CANDIDATE VEHICLES FOR HUMAN SPACE TRANSPORTATION AND EXPERIMENTAL ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY

摘要

This paper describes a Flight Mechanics the methodology applied in the and application for the Flight Mechanics support on the Mission Analysis and Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) areas for to the selection of an atmospheric entry vehicle candidate either for Human Space Transportation (HST) missions or for Experimental Atmospheric Entry missions. That support covers the selection of the vehicle configuration, the calculation of the entry corridor, the generation of the nominal entry trajectory, the performance assessment through Monte-Carlo simulations of controlled trajectories and the Flight Control System (FCS) performance specification, in terms of allocation and sizing of actuators. The objective is to apply a methodology that considers the highest possible greatest number of requirements as possible that have an impact into on the Flight Mechanics performance of the entry vehicle. It has been applied to potential candidate vehicles for those ESA missions that range from classical capsules, advanced capsules and high-performance controlled lifting bodies. An example of application for a Biconic shape without active control surfaces is presented. The results show that this methodology improves the reliability of the preliminary design by reducing the number and extent of the iterations required to consolidate the design, thus representing a valuable support to system-level design activities.