An Integrated Approach for Entry Mission Design and Flight Simulations

An integrated approach for entry trajectory design, guidance, and simulation is proposed. The key ingredients for this approach are an on-line 3 degree-of-freedom entry trajectory planning algorithm and the entry guidance algorithm that generates the guidance gains automatically. When fully developed, such a tool could enable end-bend entry mission design and simulations in 3DOF and 6DOF mode from de-orbit burn to the TAEM interface and beyond, all in one key stroke. Some preliminary examples of such a capability are presented in this paper that demonstrate the potential of this type of integrated environment.