Spacecraft trajectory design based on phase space transport

Naoki Hiraiwa

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

Spacecraft trajectory design can reduce fuel consumption by exploiting natural transport pathways in multi-body dynamics. The circular restricted three-body problem (CR3BP) provides a standard framework for identifying dynamical structures that mediate such phase space transport. In the planar CR3BP, lobe dynamics offers a geometrical picture of transport on a Poincaré map. Lobes, regions enclosed by stable/unstable manifold structures, act as gates through which chaotic trajectories transition between regions. Based on this framework, we construct low-energy transfers between the LEO and LLO. We then discuss how the analysis of transport structures can be extended to the spatial problem, using the three-dimensional ABC map as a toy model.