LAUSR

Abstract Next-generation powered landing guidance for planetary soft landing needs multi-point-guidance capabilities. A novel trajectory optimization framework for planetary multi-point powered landing is presented in this study. First, the powered landing trajectory optimization problem with three-dimensional dynamics model, boundary conditions, and path constraints is formulated. The finite-element collocation approach with collocation based on Radau points is chosen to transcribe the formulated trajectory optimization problem into a nonlinear programming problem solved by Interior Point OPTimizer (IPOPT). The proposed trajectory optimization framework utilizes optimal sensitivity based on IPOPT to select the fuel-optimal landing aim point from candidate landing aim points by one optimization computation. Then, the optimal trajectory to the best landing aim point can be efficiently obtained based on the good initial value guess provided by the sensitivity analysis. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm effectively and efficiently addresses the planetary multi-point powered landing problem and has potential for onboard implementation.