Reachability- and Controllability-Based Planetary Aerobraking Predictor–Corrector Guidance Under Environmental Uncertainty

Environmental uncertainty makes atmospheric passages challenging and poses risks to flight safety and mission success during planetary aerobraking. To enhance aerobraking predictor–corrector guidance under uncertainty, this paper proposes a strategy based on reachability and controllability. The reachable union set and a controllable intersection set under uncertainty are developed and integrated into the prediction and correction phases, respectively. The reachable set improves the estimation of the periapsis state distribution, supporting reliable maneuver decisions at apoapsis, while the controllable set is used to determine feasible commands so that the corrected periapsis state meets corridor constraints. For computational efficiency, several propositions are proposed and then used to transform the complex set calculations for the reachable and controllable sets into the determination of bounds for the periapsis heat flux and aerobraking maneuver sets. Simulation results show that the method enables proper decisions and effective corrections under uncertainty, improving the safety and efficiency of aerobraking.