Six-Degrees-of-Freedom Aero-Propulsive Entry Trajectory Optimization

This work formulates a fully-consistent 6-DoF entry trajectory optimization problem. In addition to the rotational dynamics, the problem is further complicated by the simultaneous presence of aerodynamic controls by continuous deflections of the aerodynamic surfaces, and a set of reaction control system thrusters which intrinsically represent discrete (on and off) controls. The transcription relies on the recently developed approach of augmented convex-concave decomposition. A successive convex optimization method is used for the generation of the numerical solutions. Numerical results are provided using the NASA Mid-lift-to-drag ratio Rigid Vehicle model and a high-mass Mars mission scenario.