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Control of spacecraft in proximity orbits
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007)
Formation flying of spacecraft and autonomous rendezvous and docking of spacecraft are two missions in which satellites operate in close proximity and their relative trajectories are critically important. Both classes of ...
Methods and tools for the formulation, evaluation and optimization of rover mission concepts
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007)
Traditionally, Mars rover missions have been conceived with a single point design approach, exploring a limited architectural trade space. The design of future missions must resolve a conflict between increasingly ambitious ...
Modeling aviation's global emissions, uncertainty analysis, and applications to policy
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005)
(cont.) fuel burn results below 3000 ft. For emissions, the emissions indices were the most influential uncertainties for the variance in model outputs. By employing the model, this thesis examined three policy options for ...
A Gauss pseudospectral transcription for optimal control
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005)
A pseudospectral method for solving nonlinear optimal control problems is proposed in this thesis. The method is a direct transcription that transcribes the continuous optimal control problem into a discrete nonlinear ...
Robust hybrid control for autonomous vehicle motion planning
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001)
This dissertation focuses on the problem of motion planning for agile autonomous vehicles. In realistic situations, the motion planning problem must be solved in real-time, in a dynamic and uncertain environment. The ...
Fully kinetic numerical modeling of a plasma thruster
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001)
A Hall effect plasma thruster with conductive acceleration channel walls was numerically modeled using 2D3V Particle-in-Cell (PIC) and Monte-Carlo Collision (MCC) methodolo- gies. Electron, ion, and neutral dynamics were ...
Development and test of a microfabricated bipropellant rocket engine
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000)
The development of high aspect-ratio, high precision micromachining in silicon or silicon carbide suggests the feasibility of rnicrofabricated, high chamber pressure chemical rocket engines. Such an engine, approximately ...
Development of a high power density combustion system for a silicon micro gas turbine engine
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000)
As part of an effort to develop a microfabricated gas turbine engine capable of providing 10-50 Watts of electrical power in a package less than one cubic centimeter in volume, this thesis presents the design, fabrication, ...
Development and experimental validation of direct controller tuning for spaceborne telescopes
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000)
Strict requirements in the performance of future space-based observatories such as the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) and the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), will extend the state-of-the-art of critical mission ...
A quadrature-based technique for robust design with computer simulations
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007)
This thesis presents a method for estimating transmitted variance to enable robust parameter design in computer simulations. This method is based on the Hermite-Gaussian quadrature for a single input. It is extended to ...