Wang Sang Koon
Control and Dynamical Systems
Mail Stop 107-81
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~koon/
koon@cds.caltech.edu
Abstract:
In 1991, the Japanese Hiten mission used a low energy transfer with a
ballistic capture at the Moon which required less fuel than a standard
Hohmann transfer. In this work, we apply the dynamical
systems techniques developed in our earlier paper
to reproduce systematically a Hiten-like mission. We approximate the
Sun-Earth-Moon-spacecraft 4-body system as two 3-body systems.
Using the invariant manifold structures of the Lagrange points of the
3-body systems, we are able to
construct low energy transfer trajectories from the Earth which execute
ballistic capture at the Moon. The techniques used in the design and
construction of this trajectory may be applied
in many situations.