LEVERAGING RESONANT ORBIT MANIFOLDS TO DESIGN TRANSFERS BETWEEN LIBRATION POINT ORBITS IN MULTI-BODY REGIMES

Resonant orbits have been widely employed in mission design for planetary flyby trajectories (JEO) and, more recently, as a source of long-term stability (IBEX). Yet, resonant orbits have not been explored extensively as transfer mechanisms between non-resonant orbits in multi-body systems. To highlight the benefit of employing resonant orbits for transfers and given the increased interest in employing libration point orbits for a variety of purposes, 2D and 3D transfers from LEO to the vicinity of the Earth-Moon libration points via resonant arcs are presented. Solutions are efficiently generated in the circular restricted three-body model and transitioned to a higher-fidelity model for validation. Direct optimization can further reduce the propellant requirements and a system translation technique is defined to add versatility to the proposed transfer design process, allowing for the quick translation of Earth-Moon transfers to other three-body systems.