Trajectory design for a Mars Ascent Vehicle concept terrestrial demonstration

The trajectory design and propellant sizing of a conceptual Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) can be accomplished via the solution of the associated optimal control problem under given vehicle, mission, path and control constraints. This paper presents the implementation of this optimization using Gauss Pseudospectral OPtimization Software (GPOPS-II) in combination with a Sparse Nonlinear OPTimizer (SNOPT) as the nonlinear programing (NLP) solver. The solution obtained is an input to the propulsion, Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC), mechanical design, aerodynamic and thermal analysis teams, which use it to size systems, tune algorithms and update models. A sensitivity analysis of variables of interest, like dry mass and trajectory altitude is presented.