Opportunities search of transfer between interplanetary halo orbits in ephemeris model

Abstract

In this paper, a two-level search method for searching transfer opportunities between interplanetary halo orbits, exploiting the invariant manifolds of the restricted three-body problem, is proposed. In the method, the first-level search procedure is performed under the conditions of the initial time of escape manifold trajectory of the Sun-Earth halo orbit and the terminal time of capture manifold of the target planet fixed, by solving the optimal two-impulsive heliocentric trajectory to connect the two manifold trajectories. The contour map, helpful to the understanding of the global characteristics of the transfer opportunities, taking the initial time of escape manifold and the terminal time of capture manifold as variables, the optimal velocity increment of the first-level search as objective function, is used for the second-level search. Finally, taking the Earth-Mars and Earth-Venus halo to halo transfers for example, the transfer opportunities in 2015–2017 are searched. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method and reveal the property of quasi-period of transfer opportunities between interplanetary halo orbits.