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Project

End-to-End Six-DoF Entry, Descent and Landing

Exploration of Sequential Convex Optimization-based techniques for End-to-end 6-degree-of-freedom Entry, Descent, and Landing rapid prototyping of guidance solutions.

Status
Active
Timeline
2025-2026

Objective

Mature and test Sequential Convex Programming-based technologies for end-to-end 6-DoF multiphase entry, descent and landing scenarios. The study adopts the NASA Cobra-MRV as benchmark and is carried forward in cooperation with San Diego State University.

Entry vehicle concept

Approach

The problem is solved by developing a highly-flexible multi-phase, Hybrid Sequential Pseudospectral Convex Programming (HSPCP) approach, able to deal with arbitrary number of states and controls in each phase independently, as well as complex inter-phase conditions and different representations of the equations of motion.

Entry+descent trajectory

Why It Matters

These problems can be very hard to solve with state-of-the-art approaches. The proper exploitation of the proposed methodology can bring the analysis of a mission scenario down from days or hours to tens of seconds, effectively simplifying the analysis of a big number of scenarios in a reduced amount of time.

ARGOS Lab aims at conceiving, developing and validating advanced G&C algorithms and methodologies for space systems. The lab has been founded at the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Bologna and funded by the European Research Council through the ERC-CoG 2024 grant "STARGATE".

Coordinates

Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Via Luciano Montaspro 97

Forlì Campus, Italy

44.200889° N, 12.064129° E

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