Fuel-Optimal Retrothrusted Soft Landing through an Atmosphere.

M. L. Juncosa

ResearchPublished 1970

A simple analysis of the problem of achieving a soft landing for airdrop by fitting the payload with retrorockets, and a direct iterative numerical procedure for determining the switch-on point for minimal fuel consumption, in terms of either time or altitude. Through appropriate reversals of sign, the formulas may also be used for ascent trajectories of full-thrust, vertically boosted rockets where the assumption of a constant gravity field is acceptable. Since the unretrothrusted portion of the descent is identical with free fall, the dynamical equations are integrable in closed forms. For a constant atmosphere, closed form analytic solution is also obtained for the retrothrusted descent. For an exponentially varying atmosphere, however, one cannot escape a numerical integration of the dynamical equations. 30 pp. Ref. (MW)

Document Details

  • Copyright: RAND Corporation
  • Availability: Web Only
  • Year: 1970
  • Pages: 30
  • Document Number: R-515-PR

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Juncosa, M. L., Fuel-Optimal Retrothrusted Soft Landing through an Atmosphere. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1970. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R515.html.
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