Aerospace vehicle entry flightpath control

Abstract

A system for controlling an aerospace vehicle by exploiting the dihedral effect to control bank angle of the vehicle by modulating sideslip. The control system includes a closed feedback loop comprising an outer loop for producing a sideslip angle command to induce a roll moment through the dihedral effect to satisfy a bank angle command, and an inner loop for taking the sideslip angle command, and possibly an angle of attack command to produce control input for flightpath hardware controls. Flightpath control hardware include pairs of flaps arranged longitudinally along the leading and trailing edges of an aeroshell of an aerospace entry vehicle to control pitch for changing the angle of attack, and another pair of flaps arranged laterally to control yaw for changing the bank angle via the sideslip angle, and also moving mass along ribs to control pitch and yaw. Thrusters can be fired to induce roll.