Guidance system
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A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a
A guidance system is usually part of a
One of the earliest examples of a true guidance system is that used in the German V-1 during World War II. The navigation system consisted of a simple gyroscope, an airspeed sensor, and an altimeter. The guidance instructions were target altitude, target velocity, cruise time, and engine cut off time.
A guidance system has three major sub-sections: Inputs, Processing, and Outputs. The input section includes
, or other devices.History
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Inertial guidance systems were originally developed for rockets. American rocket pioneer
US guidance history centers around 2 distinct communities. One driven out of
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory traces its history from the 1930s, when Caltech professor
In the early 1950s, the US government wanted to insulate itself against over dependency on the German team for military applications. Among the areas that were domestically "developed" was missile guidance. In the early 1950s the
In the summer of 1952, Dr. Richard Battin[8] and Dr. J. Halcombe ("Hal") Laning Jr., researched computational based solutions to guidance as computing began to step out of the analog approach. As computers of that time were very slow (and missiles very fast) it was extremely important to develop programs that were very efficient. Dr. J. Halcombe Laning, with the help of Phil Hankins and Charlie Werner, initiated work on MAC, an algebraic programming language for the IBM 650, which was completed by early spring of 1958. MAC became the work-horse of the MIT lab. MAC is an extremely readable language having a three-line format, vector-matrix notations and mnemonic and indexed subscripts. Today's Space Shuttle (STS) language called HAL, (developed by Intermetrics, Inc.) is a direct offshoot of MAC. Since the principal architect of HAL was Jim Miller, who co-authored with Hal Laning a report on the MAC system, it is a reasonable speculation that the space shuttle language is named for Jim's old mentor, and not, as some have suggested, for the electronic superstar of the Arthur Clarke movie "2001-A Space Odyssey." (Richard Battin, AIAA 82–4075, April 1982)
Hal Laning and Richard Battin undertook the initial analytical work on the Atlas
The initial "Delta" guidance system assessed the difference in position from a reference trajectory. A velocity to be gained (VGO) calculation is made to correct the current trajectory with the objective of driving VGO to Zero. The mathematics of this approach were fundamentally valid, but dropped because of the challenges in accurate inertial navigation (e.g. IMU Accuracy) and analog computing power. The challenges faced by the "Delta" efforts were overcome by the "Q system" of guidance. The "Q" system's revolution was to bind the challenges of missile guidance (and associated equations of motion) in the matrix Q. The Q matrix represents the partial derivatives of the velocity with respect to the position vector. A key feature of this approach allowed for the components of the vector cross product (v, xdv,/dt) to be used as the basic autopilot rate signals-a technique that became known as "cross-product steering." The Q-system was presented at the first Technical Symposium on Ballistic Missiles held at the Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation in Los Angeles on June 21 and 22, 1956. The "Q System" was classified information through the 1960s. Derivations of this guidance are used for today's military missiles. The CSDL team remains a leader in the military guidance and is involved in projects for most divisions of the US military.
On August 10 of 1961 NASA awarded MIT a contract for preliminary design study of a guidance and navigation system for
Much system complexity within manned systems is driven by "redundancy management" and the support of multiple "abort" scenarios that provide for crew safety. Manned US Lunar and Interplanetary guidance systems leverage many of the same guidance innovations (described above) developed in the 1950s. So while the core mathematical construct of guidance has remained fairly constant, the facilities surrounding GN&C continue to evolve to support new vehicles, new missions and new hardware. The center of excellence for the manned guidance remains at MIT (CSDL) as well as the former McDonnell Douglas Space Systems (in Houston).
See also
- Automotive navigation system
- Autopilot
- Guide rail
- List of missiles
- Robotic navigation
- Precision-guided munition
- Guided bomb
- Missile
- Missile guidance
- Terminal guidance
- Proximity sensor
- Artillery fuze
- Magnetic proximity fuze
- Proximity fuze
References
- ISBN 978-0-470-04190-1.
- ISBN 978-0-07-164266-8.
- ^ Draper, C. S.; Wrigley, W.; Hoag, G.; Battin, R. H.; Miller, E.; Koso, A.; Hopkins, A. L.; Vander Velde, W. E. (June 1965). Apollo Guidance and Navigation (PDF) (Report). Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Instrumentation Laboratory. pp. I-3 et seqq. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
- ^ "Wernher von Braun (1912-1977)". NASA. May 25, 2006.
- ^ "MSFC History Office, 1950s". NASA. Archived from the original on November 9, 2005.
- ^ "Von Braun". Archived from the original on 2013-08-17. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
- ^ "JPL's Beginnings". ethics.jpg.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on October 17, 2002.
- ^ "Richard H. Battin - Spaceflight Pioneer". Space.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-22. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
- ^ Battin, Richard H. (February 2002). "Some Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Moon" (PDF). eng.buffalo.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 30, 2011.
- ^ "Apollo Guidance And Navigation" (PDF). NASA.
- ^ "Chariots for Apollo, A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft". NASA.[page needed]
Further reading
- An Introduction to the Mathematics and Methods of Astrodynamics, Revised Edition (AIAA Education Series) Richard Battin, May 1991
- Space Guidance Evolution-A Personal Narrative, Richard Battin, AIAA 82–4075, April 1982