Method for controlling vectoring nozzles on space vehicle

摘要

The invention relates to a method for low-fuel, computer-assisted control of any number of thrusts mounted in any given arrangement on a spacecraft, which solves the problem of linear optimization by reducing computational effort in a very short time. The method is based on the dual simplex algorithm and suitable provision of a dual admission start table. The dual admission start table is set up on the basis of a previously calculated optimum table and a transformation of the actual force/power vector pertaining to the chosen optimum table. Given processing steps of the dual simplex algorithm are skipped totally or are substituted by processing steps which require substantially less computational effort. Finally, a reduced table as opposed to the simplex table is used. Said reduced table consists solely of an identification number for selecting a thruster from the entire number of thrusters and the vector of the control values of the thrusters which are contained in said selection. Reduction in computational effort is achieved by carrying out given processing steps in advance and by providing the corresponding results in the form of data fields and index or identification number matrixes in the working memory of the computer. Said results from the initialization phase of the method need only to be addressed and retrieved in order to calculate thruster control.