AAS 97-714
OPTIMAL LOW-THRUST TRAJECTORIES TO EARTH-MOON L2 HALO ORBITS (CIRCULAR PROBLEM)
T.F. Starchville, Jr. and R.G. Melton - Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
Development of optimal low-thrust transfer trajectories required between Earth and an Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit is examined. A general optimal solution method is constructed using sequential nonlinear programming to find minimum-propellant spacecraft transfers. Only a single thrust phase of the trajectory (using tangential steering) is optimized with the spacecraft traveling the remaining time-of-flight on the stable manifold of the halo insertion point. The solution method is demonstrated for a number of insertion points on two different reference halos for the circular restricted three-body problem.