A continuous simulation of a rocket taking off and landing in a 2D environment maps the rockets velocity and location at any given point in time, accounting for thrust, gravity, and drag as a function of altitude-based changes in air density. The rocket follows a mission launch profile, accelerating from a ground state, attaining an apogee of 200km, falling back down, then executing a landing burn before touchdown. Each stage is run multiple times to ensure the mission profile is attained, adjusting parameters as necessary. The resultant simulation is thus able to determine the optimal flight path for the rocket which minimizes leftover fuel after landing, and thus maximizes the horizontal velocity attained at apogee.
We initially did the simulation in using Matlab we then ported it to Python to analyze and improve the performance.
For running the python version, issue python simulation.py --help to get the availabe arguments
To run the matlab version (stale) go to ./matlab/ and issue make run
Hamid & Grant