Isolating blocks as computational tools in the circular restricted three-body problem

Abstract

Isolating blocks may be used as computational tools to search for the invariant manifolds of orbits and hyperbolic invariant sets associated with libration points while also giving additional insight into the dynamics of the flow in these regions. We use isolating blocks to investigate the dynamics of objects entering the Earth–Moon system in the circular restricted three-body problem with energies close to the energy of the L2 libration point. Specifically, the stable and unstable manifolds of Lyapunov orbits and the hyperbolic invariant set around the libration points are obtained by numerically computing the way orbits exit from an isolating block in combination with a bisection method. Invariant spheres of solutions in the spatial problem may then be located using the resulting manifolds.