Simulation of low thrust guidance problems

The determination of optimal rocket control profiles and the guidance* procedures used to approximate these profiles have received much attention during the last decade. Simple guidance procedures have sufficed for the Apollo flights. However, for the space shuttle which will have a low-thrust, orbital maneuvering system a more sophisticated guidance is required. This paper develops a guidance applicable to low-thrust orbital maneuvers and compares numerical results with those obtained using lengthy gradient and accelerated gradient methods.