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I can only offer my guess. First, the baseline planetary landing is done using a
gravity turn (the Apollo lunar lander used this). It is a very simple maneuver
where you estimate your current altitude and velocity and figure out when to
thrust in order to reach zero velocity near the surface. It is accomplished with a
very simple equation:
Now, this is far simpler than most landers would use today, especially with a
small landing platform and winds to deal with. But it can get you pretty close
with the trajectory design. You can choose a nominal trajectory with a burn time
based on the gravity turn or something similar, then in flight just use the fins
and thrust vectoring in order to stay on that nominal trajectory. Of course, what
you *think* is the nominal trajectory could actually put you in the water due to
droneship drift and other factors. The droneship probably communicates
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09/03/2018 (1) What algorithms and calculations are involved in SpaceX rocket landings? - Quora
directory with the rocket, since the relative position between the two is
ultimately what matters. So basically, the rocket predicts the trajectory it needs
to meet with the drone ship and reach zero relative velocity, then it calculates
the thrust force required to stay on that trajectory, then it uses the control
system to achieve that thrust force.
Another option is an advanced numerical guidance algorithm that does not use
a nominal trajectory: it creates a new optimal trajectory on-the-fly. I found one
publicly accessible paper co-authored by a guy from SpaceX:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings...
Companies do this kind of thing all the time without any real use, so its not
guaranteed that this is even related to current rocket landing algorithms, but I
imagine something like it could be used. The math is far too complex to explain
here but it involves advanced topics in optimal control theory.
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Anonymous
Answered Jul 11, 2016
On the surface, the math is quite simple. In fact, the question is asked as an
exercise in Steven Boyd’s convex optimization course (14.8,
http://stanford.edu/~boyd/cvxboo... ). Reading through the chapters leading
up to 14 in the textbook, also available online, will give you an idea. Related Questions
In short, if you discretize the timesteps between now and landing, and then use How did Elon Musk learn enough about rockets to
create and run SpaceX?
some integration model (euler, RK, etc.), you can express
position/velocity/acceleration as a function of engine thrust. If you can massage Why don't SpaceX and BlueOrigin bring back their
vehicles with simple parachutes, instead of
your problem into being fully convex (as this form can be), you can use a convex complex rocket-fueled landing procedures?
solver on this with startlingly effective results. Now, adding a real rocket
When the SpaceX rocket landed on the ship, the
requires quite a bit more modeling and a very large number of constraints, but rocket bounced. Was this normal?
the magic is that if you can keep the problem convex (or quasiconvex), solving it
Does SpaceX use any deep learning (or machine
is algorithmically easy. learning) to land rockets?
In practice, implementation will be quite a lot more difficult, but this is a start. What are the next technological achievements for
SpaceX after the rocket landing in April 2016?
1k Views · View Upvoters
Where do spent rockets land?
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How much money did SpaceX save by
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Answer written · Computer Programmers · 2h Answer written · Computer Programmers · Mon Answer written · Computer Programmers · 8h
Do programmers have some Why don’t most programmers What is the most illegal or
coding secrets that are only like hardware-embedded unethical code you ever wrote?
learnt by experience? programming? Dale Firmin, former Electrician,
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09/03/2018 (1) What algorithms and calculations are involved in SpaceX rocket landings? - Quora
Paul Pacheco, Software engineer Tom Crosley, M.S. Computer Instrument Tech, Electronics Tech
half a lifetime Science, Illinois Institute of Answered 8h ago
Answered 2h ago Technology Chicago - Illinois Tech
Answered Mon · Upvoted by Sandy
This was quite by accident. When I was a
Sure, here are some things that I do that Perlmutter, computer consultant for more graduate student, before the Internet, we
give me an edge over my peers. Don’t than 30 years, from COBOL and IBM had Bitnet. Now there was this chat
reinvent the wheel It sounds obvious, but assembler on.
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a large number of developers will develop To enjoy doing embedded
100 “channels”. You could join any ...
something without even doing a singl... programming (and why do
(more)
(more) a job if you don’t enjoy it),
you have to really
Read In Feed understand theRead
hardware
In Feed Read In Feed
and be comfortable with it.
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