What if everything until now has been a prologue? Human progress didn't stop at the horizon, then why would it stop at the atmosphere? Space settlement and utilisation is the next link in a chain that began with our forebears on land, sailed with them across the seas, and followed them into the air. The expanse beyond humanity's cradle beckons our drive to explore and offers us visions of a brighter future.
Landing a rocket on the surface of a planet was once a staple of science fiction, but then the lunar landing in 1969 of Apollo 11 sparked a whole new generation towards life beyond Earth. However, in search of a future outside our home planet, engineers need to come up with solutions to tackle the harsh landing surfaces and excessive fuel consumption.
Driven by this fascination, this simulation project uses Pyomo and a simple model of a rocket to compute a control policy for a soft landing, helping further missions. The parameters used correspond for the descent of a typical lunar module on the surface of the moon.