The contribution of thermal radiation to a reentry heating environment

The successful culmination of escape velocity space missions entails energy management of the earth reentry portion of flight. This involves problems in dynamics and heating. Pertinent guidance and control considerations for an Apollo type reentry trajectory are discussed in Chapter I. Three potential methods of trajectory control are presented and salient features of each are noted. The necessary guidance system philosophy as well as restrictions inherent in this type of a mission are evaluated to aid in the selection of the proper method of guidance. The selected guidance scheme is analyzed by utilizing a logic flow chart, Figure 2, and breaking the total program down into smaller sub-sections individually tailored to best perform a specific task. However, many of the intimate details associated with this guidance scheme are of a proprietary nature, and consequently, cannot be divulged in a document of this type. A digital computer program designed to simulate this phase of an Apollo mission is briefly discussed and several figures are presented which exemplify and illuminate the flight dynamics of reentry missions. [...]