Guidance Law Design for Terminal Area Energy Management of Reusable Launch Vehicle by Energy‐to‐Range Ratio

A new guidance scheme that utilizes a trajectory planning algorithm by energy‐to‐range ratio has been developed under the circumstance of surplus energy for the terminal area energy management phase of a reusable launch vehicle. The trajectory planning scheme estimates the reference flight profile by piecing together several flight phases that are defined by a set of geometric parameters. Guidance commands are readily available once the best reference trajectory is determined. The trajectory planning algorithm based on energy‐to‐range ratio is able to quickly generate new reference profiles for testing cases with large variations in initial vehicle condition and energy. The designed flight track has only one turn heading, which simplifies the trajectory planning algorithm. The effectiveness of the trajectory planning algorithm is demonstrated by simulations, which shows that the guided vehicle is able to successfully dissipate energy and reach the desired approach and landing glideslope target with small tracking errors.