Reentry vehicle nosetip design for minimum total heat transfer

A direct optimization method has been used to determine fixed fineness ratio nosetip shape contours for a specified vehicle ballistic coefficient and nosetip scale, which minimize the total trajectory nosetip laminar or turbulent heat transfer. These constraints neglect the interaction of the nosetip shape with vehicle performance characteristics. When this interaction is taken into account and additional new constraints of constant mass and volume are applied, truncated cone nosetips are shown to result in the lowest total nosetip heat transfer. No attempt was made to optimize nosetip shape for the latter constraints.