Optimal Guidance and Nonlinear Tracking Control for a Lunar Lander

This paper presents guidance and control laws which guarantee a minimum fuel consumption and have obustness against various disturbances during a terminal-landing phase on the lunar surface. The nonlinear robust tracking control system is designed to track the reference profiles, which are expressed by exponential functions. An adjustment law in the tracking controller is given in the form of the differential equations with respect to the controller´s variable gains. Computer simulations are performed to examine the tracking accuracy, the robustness in a thrust failure mode, and the vertical soft landing at a pre-assigned point on the lunar surface. The results of numerical simulation show the effectiveness of the present control law.