The solution of a launch vehicle trajectory problem by an adaptive finite-element method Original Research Article

We describe a second-order discontinuous Galerkin finite-element method for the solution of an optimal control problem for determining the trajectory of a launch vehicle. We derive an a posteriori error estimate that is subsequently implemented as the basis for adaptive error control. We demonstrate that the computational error estimate is reliable and accurate while the adaptive error control provides a significant gain in efficiency over uniform discretizations.