Determination of Skip Entry Trajectories for Space Vehicles at Circular and Super Circular Speeds

Abstract

The study of entry and reentry dynamics for space vehicles is very important, particularly for manned vehicles and vehicles which is carry important devices and which can be used again. There are three types for entry dynamic, ballistics entry, glide entry and skip entry. The skip entry is used in this work for describing entry dynamics and determining trajectory. The inertia coordinate system is used to derive equations of motion and determines initial condition for skip entry. The velocity and drag force for entry vehicle, where generate it during entry into earth’s atmosphere are calculated in this work. Also the deceleration during descending and determining entry angles, velocities ratio and altitude ratio have been studied. The circular velocity and super circular velocity are used in this work as initial values. From results we noted the skip entry type has longer flight time compared with other types, and the velocity vehicle is lower at high layer for earth atmosphere, where the density of air is very low. Therefore the skip entry is suitable for space shuttle during entry from space