Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar Orbit
This research addresses minimum-fuel pinpoint lunar landing at the South Pole, focusing on trajectory design and near-optimal guidance aimed at driving a spacecraft from a circular low lunar orbit (LLO) to an instantaneous hovering state above the lunar surface. Orbit dynamics is propagated in a hig...
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MDPI AG
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Aerospace |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/12/3/183 |
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| author | Matteo Caruso Giulio De Angelis Edoardo Maria Leonardi Mauro Pontani |
| author_facet | Matteo Caruso Giulio De Angelis Edoardo Maria Leonardi Mauro Pontani |
| author_sort | Matteo Caruso |
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| description | This research addresses minimum-fuel pinpoint lunar landing at the South Pole, focusing on trajectory design and near-optimal guidance aimed at driving a spacecraft from a circular low lunar orbit (LLO) to an instantaneous hovering state above the lunar surface. Orbit dynamics is propagated in a high-fidelity ephemeris-based framework, which employs spherical coordinates as the state variables and includes several harmonics of the selenopotential, as well as third-body gravitational perturbations due to the Earth and Sun. Minimum-fuel two-impulse descent transfers are identified using Lambert problem solutions as initial guesses, followed by refinement in the high-fidelity model, for a range of initial LLO inclinations. Then, a feedback Lambert-based impulsive guidance algorithm is designed and tested through a Monte Carlo campaign to assess the effectiveness under non-nominal conditions related to injection and actuation errors. Because the last braking maneuver is relatively large, a finite-thrust, locally flat, near-optimal guidance is introduced and applied. Simplified dynamics is assumed for the purpose of defining a minimum-time optimal control problem along the last thrust arc. This admits a closed-form solution, which is iteratively used until the desired instantaneous hovering condition is reached. The numerical results in non-nominal flight conditions testify to the effectiveness of the guidance approach at hand in terms of propellant consumption and precision at landing. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9f5fa13ae9044143add37f91efa02cfb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2226-4310 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Aerospace |
| spelling | doaj-art-9f5fa13ae9044143add37f91efa02cfb2025-08-20T03:40:41ZengMDPI AGAerospace2226-43102025-02-0112318310.3390/aerospace12030183Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar OrbitMatteo Caruso0Giulio De Angelis1Edoardo Maria Leonardi2Mauro Pontani3Faculty of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, ItalyDepartment of Astronautical, Electrical, and Energy Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Salaria 851, 00138 Rome, ItalyDepartment of Astronautical, Electrical, and Energy Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Salaria 851, 00138 Rome, ItalyDepartment of Astronautical, Electrical, and Energy Engineering, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Salaria 851, 00138 Rome, ItalyThis research addresses minimum-fuel pinpoint lunar landing at the South Pole, focusing on trajectory design and near-optimal guidance aimed at driving a spacecraft from a circular low lunar orbit (LLO) to an instantaneous hovering state above the lunar surface. Orbit dynamics is propagated in a high-fidelity ephemeris-based framework, which employs spherical coordinates as the state variables and includes several harmonics of the selenopotential, as well as third-body gravitational perturbations due to the Earth and Sun. Minimum-fuel two-impulse descent transfers are identified using Lambert problem solutions as initial guesses, followed by refinement in the high-fidelity model, for a range of initial LLO inclinations. Then, a feedback Lambert-based impulsive guidance algorithm is designed and tested through a Monte Carlo campaign to assess the effectiveness under non-nominal conditions related to injection and actuation errors. Because the last braking maneuver is relatively large, a finite-thrust, locally flat, near-optimal guidance is introduced and applied. Simplified dynamics is assumed for the purpose of defining a minimum-time optimal control problem along the last thrust arc. This admits a closed-form solution, which is iteratively used until the desired instantaneous hovering condition is reached. The numerical results in non-nominal flight conditions testify to the effectiveness of the guidance approach at hand in terms of propellant consumption and precision at landing.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/12/3/183minimum-fuel lunar descentpinpoint landingnear-optimal explicit guidancelow lunar orbitLambert-based trajectory optimizationpowered descent guidance |
| spellingShingle | Matteo Caruso Giulio De Angelis Edoardo Maria Leonardi Mauro Pontani Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar Orbit Aerospace minimum-fuel lunar descent pinpoint landing near-optimal explicit guidance low lunar orbit Lambert-based trajectory optimization powered descent guidance |
| title | Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar Orbit |
| title_full | Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar Orbit |
| title_fullStr | Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar Orbit |
| title_full_unstemmed | Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar Orbit |
| title_short | Minimum-Fuel Trajectories and Near-Optimal Explicit Guidance for Pinpoint Landing from Low Lunar Orbit |
| title_sort | minimum fuel trajectories and near optimal explicit guidance for pinpoint landing from low lunar orbit |
| topic | minimum-fuel lunar descent pinpoint landing near-optimal explicit guidance low lunar orbit Lambert-based trajectory optimization powered descent guidance |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/12/3/183 |
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