NASA NTRS1988
The use of atmospheric drag for slowing satellite in high energy, high apogee orbits to a lower energy, lower apogee orbit about the Earth is investigated. The high energy orbit is assumed to intercept the Earth's atmosphere. Guidance for the atmospheric phase of the trajectory may be done using the aerodynamic forces generated by the passage through the atmosphere. This research was concerned with the investigation of several methods of guidance during the atmospheric phase to cause a significant reduction in the final velocity as the vehicle leaves the atmosphere. In addition, the velocity direction was controlled to exit to a desired target orbit. Lastly excess aerodynamic lift was used to effect a plane change between the entry orbit plane and the exit orbit plane to achieve a desired orbit plane. The guidance methods were applied to a 3 degree-of-freedom simulation which included an oblate Earth gravity model and a rotating atmosphere. Simulation results were compared on the basis of speed of computation of the guidance parameters and amount of added velocity necessary to achieve the desired orbit.