Construction of Transfer Trajectories of the Spacecraft to Asteroids Passing Near Sun-Earth Libration Points

Abstract

The paper considers the issues of designing transfer trajectories of spacecraft moving along bounded orbits in vicinities of Sun–Earth libration points to the Near-Earth asteroids Apophis and 2001 WN₅. The study was conducted for the James Webb Space Telescope and the Spectrum–Roentgen–Gamma spacecraft operating near the L₂ Sun–Earth libration point. It is shown that these spacecraft can be transferred to trajectories of a close approach to the target celestial bodies at low fuel costs. The results of numerical calculations of the values of the characteristic velocity required for such flights with the subsequent return of the spacecraft to the vicinity of the initial libration point in order to continue the main mission are presented. The advantage of the proposed concept for the design of flight schemes to Near-Earth asteroids is that all sections of the spacecraft trajectories are located in a vicinity of the Earth.