Earth-Mars transfers with ballistic escape and low-thrust capture

G. Mingotti (1) , F. Topputo (2) , F. Bernelli-Zazzera (2)

1 Institute für Industriemathematik
2 DAER - Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Aerospaziali [Milano]

In this paper novel Earth-Mars transfers are presented. These transfers exploit the natural dynamics of -body models as well as the high specific impulse typical of low-thrust systems. The Moon-perturbed version of the Sun-Earth problem is introduced to design ballistic escape orbits performing lunar gravity assists. The ballistic capture is designed in the Sun-Mars system where special attainable sets are defined and used to handle the low-thrust control. The complete trajectory is optimized in the full -body problem which takes into account planets' orbital inclinations and eccentricities. Accurate, efficient solutions with reasonable flight times are presented and compared with known results.

Mots clés: Restricted three-body problem; Invariant manifolds; Low-thrust transfer; -body models; Ballistic capture; Lunar-gravity assist

G. Mingotti, F. Topputo, F. Bernelli-Zazzera. Earth-Mars transfers with ballistic escape and low-thrust capture. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 2011, pp.169-188. ⟨10.1007/s10569-011-9343-5⟩. ⟨hal-00637334⟩