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Comparison of low-energy lunar transfer trajectories to invariant manifolds

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Abstract

In this study, transfer trajectories from the Earth to the Moon that encounter the Moon at various flight path angles are examined, and lunar approach trajectories are compared to the invariant manifolds of selected unstable orbits in the circular restricted three-body problem. Previous work focused on lunar impact and landing trajectories encountering the Moon normal to the surface, and this research extends the problem with different flight path angles in three dimensions. The lunar landing geometry for a range of Jacobi constants is computed, and approaches to the Moon via invariant manifolds from unstable orbits are analyzed for different energy levels.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ted Sweetser for his support and for making this work possible. They would also like to thank Roby Wilson and Damon Landau for their helpful comments and reviews of this work. The research presented in this paper has been carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, M/S 301-121, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA

    Rodney L. Anderson & Jeffrey S. Parker

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  1. Rodney L. Anderson
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  2. Jeffrey S. Parker
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Correspondence to Rodney L. Anderson.

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Anderson, R.L., Parker, J.S. Comparison of low-energy lunar transfer trajectories to invariant manifolds. Celest Mech Dyn Astr 115, 311–331 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-012-9466-3

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