Determination of the Optimal Elliptical Trajectories Around the Earth and Moon

Abstract

Current space exploration programs call for the establishment of a permanent Human presence on the Moon. This paper considers periodic orbits of a shuttle between the Earth and the Moon. Such a shuttle will be needed to bring supplies to the Moon outpost and carry back those resources that are in short supply on Earth. To keep this shuttle in permanent periodic orbit it must have a thruster that forces it into an elliptical orbit from perigee near Earth to an apogee just beyond the Moon and back to perigee. The impacts of the Earth, Moon and Sun gravity on this orbit are considered. For this model we determine the eccentricity that minimizes the thrust requirements and the lunar $\Delta\, v$ requirements. We show that optimal placements of the eccentricity of the shuttle orbit can produce significant improvement in thrust (and fuel) requirements.