Semianalytic Computation of Ballistic Transfers in the Restricted Three-Body Problem

Trajectory design and optimization for interplanetary or planetocentric missions generally starts with generation of an initial guess trajectory in a low-fidelity dynamic model. This initial solution is used to bootstrap numerical optimization algorithms, which compute the desired mission reference trajectories in a high-fidelity dynamic model and also enforce various mission constraints such as propellant usage, mission duration, etc. More often than not, an already converged trajectory solution that is similar in some characteristics to the desired mission trajectory is used as the initial guess. The process of constructing a good initial guess for a specific mission is generally an interactive process with an astrodynamicist-in-the-loop, which makes it a difficult process to automate. This paper proposes a novel method for semianalytic computation of transfer trajectories in restricted three-body problem.