Orbit Inclination Change of Lunar Probes Utilizing Earth's Gravity

摘要

There is a history of using the Moon's gravity to change the orbit inclination of Earth's satellites, but there is much less study on using the Earth's gravity to change the orbit inclination of lunar probes. In this work, by taking the transfer from an initial orbit with an orbit inclination of 30 degrees to a polar lunar orbit as an example, this problem is studied. To simplify the study, only two maneuvers (at the departure and the arrival point respectively) are considered. Three types of transfer orbits are studied. One type directly uses the invariant manifolds associated with libration point orbits. The second type firstly sends the probe to the proximity of the Earth and then brings it back to the Moon. The third type has the transfer orbits bounded in the Moon's Hill sphere. Studies show that for the two-maneuver strategy the third type works best, both in transfer energy and time.