Low thrust gravity-assisted maneuvers for the spacecraft moving in the Earth-Moon system

Abstract

The L1-L2 and L2-L1 missions using electric propulsion are studied. The possibility and the necessity of the and gravity-assisted maneuvers are considered. Total flight time was chosen as the optimization criterion for the variational problem of the low thrust spacecraft transfer. As the result of simulation, control programs, corresponding trajectories, and a set of output parameters were determined for certain values of acceleration and jet stream velocity of the propulsion system.