Low-thrust transfer between Jovian moons using manifolds

Abstract

The development of electric propulsion systems such as ion engines has brought low-thrust control into practical use. This has made the design of spacecraft trajectories with low continuous thrust more and more demanding. This work concerns low-energy transfer trajectories between the Jupiter satellites using effectively the n-body dynamics in the Jupiter system and low-thrust controls. To analyze the dynamics of n-body models, we use the three-body problem as a model and apply the patched three-body approximation. We also use invariant manifold tubes and the result provides how to connect two different manifolds with low-thrust, low-energy trajectories. Show more