STUDY OF THE TRANSFER FROM THE EARTH TO A HALO ORBIT AROUND THE EQUILIBRIUM POINT L(1)

The purpose of this paper is to study a transfer strategy from the vicinity of the Earth to a halo orbit around the equilibrium point L(1) of the Earth-Sun system. The study is done in the real solar system (we use the DE-118 JPL ephemeris in the simulations of motion) although some simplified models, such as the restricted three body problem (RTBP) and the bicircular problem, have been also used in order to clarify the geometrical aspects of the problem. The approach used in the paper makes use of the hyperbolic character of the halo orbits under consideration. The invariant stable manifold of these orbits enables the transfer to be achieved with, theoretically, only one manoeuvre: the one of insertion into the stable manifold. For the total Delta nu required, the figures obtained are similar to the ones given by the standard procedures of optimization.