Orbital rendezvous using an Augmented Lambert Guidance scheme

Abstract

The development of an Augmented Lambert Guidance Algorithm that matches the position and velocity of an orbiting target spacecraft is presented in this thesis. The Augmented Lambert Guidance Algorithm manipulates the inputs given to a preexisting Lambert guidance algorithm to control the boost of a launch vehicle, or chaser, from the surface of the Earth to a transfer trajectory enroute to the aim point. After the chaser coasts along this transfer trajectory for a time, a manoeuver is performed to match the position and velocity of the target spacecraft. A three degree-of-freedom model was created to simulate the dynamics of the chaser and target spacecraft. The simulation was used to evaluate the ability and versatility of the Augmented Lambert Guidance Algorithm. The analysis proved that the methods developed in this thesis create a feasible algorithm to perform the desired tasks.