Why Spacecraft Are Using These Crazy Routes To The Moon - Weak Stability and Ballistic Capture.
Scott Manley Scott Manley
1.67M subscribers
314,540 views
0

 Published On Dec 19, 2022

For decades spacecraft would fly direct to the moon and then brake into lunar orbit, but these days most spacecraft take long circuitous routes, dancing on the edge of stability near the lagrange points of the sun-earth-moon system. These techniques save propellent at the expense of time and navigation complexity.
They use the theory of weak stability boundaries and ballistic capture in the 3 body problem, to make this possible, and it's an idea which was first discovered in the early 1990's and has now become the main route for modern spacecraft.

Some of the orbit visualizations use Universe Sandbox
https://universesandbox.com/


Follow me on Twitter for more updates:
  / djsnm  

I have a discord server where I regularly turn up:
  / discord  

If you really like what I do you can support me directly through Patreon
  / scottmanley  

show more

Share/Embed