An approach for generating an initial guess for a direct optimization method is the field of rocket ascent trajec- tories is described. An indirect optimization approach is used to calculate a trajectory that neglects atmospheric effects, path constraints, and several other more complicated boundary constraints. Once this trajectory is gener- ated, it is used as an initial guess for a direct optimization method, which includes all atmospheric effects, path, and boundary constraints. The indirect method also generates a switching function, which is used to analyze the nom- inal mission profile in order to identify possible improvements by adding coast arcs.
展开▼
