I've been reading this awesome simulation of the actual Apollo 17 descent: http://www.braeunig.us/apollo/LM-descent.htm
I've been trying to make my own simulation using Euler integration, with a time step of 100ms. The problem is my descent module is crashing during the first two minutes with a vertical speed of -220 m/s.
During the initial stage of the descent (braking), the lander is tilted 90º and almost all the thrust is spent in the horizontal component, with no force to counter gravity. In my simulation the vertical speed quickly builds up while the pitch is 80-90º, and then gravity does it job. Here's a trace:
t: 0 s; x: 0; y: 17234.6112; vx: 1697.1264 m/s; vy: -20.4216 m/s; ax: 1.2995855485404475 m/s2; ay: -1.6121564579144938 m/s2
pitch: 90; throttle: 0.1297; fuel: 8874.2Kg
t: 10.015 s; x: 17062.974621379497; y: 16948.14950433809; vx: 1710.2669538608811 m/s; vy: -36.64853435841286 m/s; ax: 1.3247309786564347 m/s2; ay: -1.628484797082333 m/s2
pitch: 90; throttle: 0.1297; fuel: 8855.501190599978Kg
t: 20.019 s; x: 34239.89169813059; y: 16498.912567960208; vx: 1723.6514116543285 m/s; vy: -53.026163503416676 m/s; ax: 1.3509707026458686 m/s2; ay: -1.6456786784409965 m/s2
pitch: 90; throttle: 0.1297; fuel: 8836.82291908347Kg
t: 30.026 s; x: 51527.03405575163; y: 15884.74450896862; vx: 1725.5675762461628 m/s; vy: -69.5834660661016 m/s; ax: -0.9584923539027193 m/s2; ay: -1.663174744204344 m/s2
pitch: 90; throttle: 1; fuel: 8756.011226046036Kg
t: 40.041 s; x: 68759.3217349438; y: 15103.315677459259; vx: 1715.7571868391299 m/s; vy: -86.32821281208818 m/s; ax: -1.0003892381595199 m/s2; ay: -1.6806337716945954 m/s2
pitch: 90; throttle: 1; fuel: 8611.841531365935Kg
t: 50.502 s; x: 86651.75776002374; y: 14107.047450672597; vx: 1705.0564069549016 m/s; vy: -104.00697912916615 m/s; ax: -1.0452064683102156 m/s2; ay: -1.6991809596193168 m/s2
pitch: 90; throttle: 1; fuel: 8461.251498809865Kg
t: 134.865 s; x: 226365.92349700694; y: -5.915270639694082; vx: 1602.384872970266 m/s; vy: -225.9485740506923 m/s; ax: -1.382111636427434 m/s2; ay: -1.224439728661491 m/s2
pitch: 78; throttle: 1; fuel: 7246.814359289593Kg
FINISHED at t=2.24775 minutes
However, in the original simulation, vertical speed never exceeds -20 m/s. I don't know how could this be possible, as there's no drag due to atmosphere. And I've coded initial acceleration and velocity values exactly as in this very same page. You can check the original trace here:
http://www.braeunig.us/apollo/LM-descent.pdf
Here we can see the Moon's gravity is aprox. -1.5 m/s which heavily influences ay
in my simulation. However in the real descent trace it was kept to lower values (+-0.1) most of the time, even during the first minute when there was no vertical thrust due to the engine.
I must be making very stupid mistakes but right now I can't see where.
BTW this is how I update my vars in each step:
//Calculate acceleration as a function of mass, velocity, thrust and gravity
ax = vx*vx/(y + MOON_MEAN_RADIUS_M) + (thrust_x/mass);
ay = (vx*vy/(y + MOON_MEAN_RADIUS_M)) + g + (thrust_y/mass);
// This would be the acceleration for a flat moon. Don't work either.
// ax = thrust_x/mass;
// ay = g + (thrust_y/mass);
//Update velocity as a function of acceleration and time.
vx = vx + ax*dtSecs;
vy = vy + ay*dtSecs;
// Update position
x = x + vx*dtSecs;
y = y + vy*dtSecs;
Any hint would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
ax = vx*vx/(y + MOON_MEAN_RADIUS_M) + (thrust_x/mass);
ay = (vx*vy/(y + MOON_MEAN_RADIUS_M)) + g + (thrust_y/mass);
Why is the top linevx*vx
and the bottomvx*vy
? \$\endgroup\$ – Stephen Locke Dec 11 '13 at 17:29