Shoot the Moon
Koon, WS;
Lo, MW;
Marsden, JE;
Ross, SD;
Abstract:
In 1991, the Japanese Hiten mission used a low energy transfer with a
ballistic capture at the Moon which required less Delta V than a standard
Hohmann transfer to the Moon. In this paper, we apply the same dynamical
systems techniques used to produce the "Petit Grand Tour" of Jovian moons
to reproduce a Hiten-like mission. We decouple the Sun-Earth-Moon-Spacecraft
4-body problem into two 3-body problems. Using the invariant
manifold theory of the Lagrange points of the 3-body systems, we are able to
construct low energy transfer trajectories from the Earth and ballistic capture
trajectories at the Moon. The techniques used in the design and construction
of this trajectory may be applied in many situations.
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